TurtleCraftyGirl

Banana Orange Cake

2015-06-17T14:40:00.002-07:00

Yesterday, I decided to use all my over ripe bananas by making a Banana bread. But my son said he would like an Orange cake instead. So I decided to mix both. My sister had highly recommended a Banana cake recipe which she forwarded me along with tons of positive things about this recipe. I modified this recipe to include freshly squeezed orange juice and orange rind, and adjusted the flour accordingly.

Increasing the flour meant more batter, so we had some cupcakes as well.

A small mini cake to go along. I was out of walnuts, as my kids have a big appetite for nuts and berries. As luck would have it, I had bought a packet of dried wild berries a day before, and they have not had a chance to finish it yet. So, I used berries instead.

Here's the recipe

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cup light brown sugar

3 eggs

3 cups sifted all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/3 cup mashed ripe bananas

1/4 cup milk

1 cup chopped walnuts

3/4 cup or freshly squeezed juice from 1 large orange

rind from 1 large orange

Directions

Heat oven to 350°F. Mix orange rind and sugar thoroughly.
In a large mixing bowl cream butter, vanilla and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time.
Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. Mix mashed bananas, orange juice and milk together.
Blend dry ingredients into batter alternating with banana and orange mixture. Stir in chopped nuts.
Pour batter into 2 greased and floured 9-inch round or square baking pans.
Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until cake tester inserted in center comes out clean.
Cool 10 minutes, then turn out on racks until thoroughly cool. When ready to serve frost with Cream Cheese Frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting: In mixing bowl, stir cheese until smooth. Gradually beat in sugar a little at a time. Add vanilla; beat until smooth. Spread mixture between layers and around sides.

You can find the original Banana Walnut cake recipe here.

I can't wait to make it again with walnuts and maybe some frosting.

Happy Baking !

Warm Cozy Wrap

2015-06-15T12:32:00.002-07:00

Last December I stumbled upon this super soft and warm Mountaintop Chalet yarn from Classic Elite. My local yarn store had a beautiful wrap/scarf knitted from this yarn for display. I bought that yarn right there as a Christmas gift for myself. I finally got to knitting it this year.

The pattern for this yarn is available for sale at Ravelry. I did not purchase the pattern as I just went with the flow of changing colors on the bias.

I still need to block it, but have already used it couple of times. Totally love it.

Happy Knitting!

ColorBlock Bias Baby Blanket

2015-05-27T00:56:00.000-07:00

This appears to be the baby season in our extended family. Which means I get knit more. I always prefer mindless knitting. That's the reason I get drawn towards blankets and scarves. This baby blanket is my latest knitting project that I completed. The pattern is from purlbee. For yarn, I used Cascade 220 Superwash sport from Webs.

Love these Tassels.

Happy Knitting!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Chocolate Ganache

2015-05-18T12:33:00.002-07:00

My search for the perfect Chocolate Cupcakes have ended. This recipe from gimmesomeoven makes such moist delicious cupcakes. For the cakes, I still love my recipe here, but my cupcakes were always little dry with it.

For the Salted Caramel Chocolate Ganache:

1 cup salted caramel sauce
1/2 cup cream
18 ounces dark chocolate

Heat the salted caramel sauce in a pan, and add dark chocolate pieces to it. Take off the heat, and add half cup cream. Let it settle for couple of hours before piping it.

I did not wait long enough for the ganache to settle, and started piping while it was still warm, and so the messed up piping.

For salted caramel, I followed the below recipe from Flavor the Moments:

Ingredients:

1 cup graulated sugar
1 tablespoon water
3/4 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1 teaspoon fleur de sel

Directions:
Place the sugar and water in medium saucepan over medium low heat. Cook, stirring, until the sugar has dissolved. Increase the heat to high, and boil the sugar without stirring. If the sugar begins to crystallize on the sides of the pan, carefully use a wet pastry brush to brush it off. Boil until the sugar turns a deep amber color, being careful not to burn. Remove from heat and whisk in the cream a bit at a time. Whisk in the butter and fleur se sel. Transfer to a cool jar.

Happy Baking!

Cozy Ribbed Cowl

2015-05-06T11:54:00.000-07:00

Spring is here, but its still cool enough for me to continue working on my knitting projects. This year, so far has been all about knitting. Handmade knitted scarves and blankets make such wonderful gifts.

We moved to a new place last fall and as luck would have it, there is an amazing yarn(Monarch Knitting) place close to my home. All the soft merino makes me drool and I normally end up buying yarn for projects way into future. So acquiring quite a stash.

So, this cowl was my 4th knitting project this winter. First 3 were gifted without taking any picture. The yarn used is Malabrigo Chunky and its a simple Ribbed pattern. I found the ribbed pattern on my new favorite knitting site Purl Bee. I modified this pattern slightly to K4, P4 intead of K2 P2, and used different set of needles as per the yarn.

Happy Knitting!

Mother's Day Clay Necklace

2015-04-30T14:17:00.001-07:00

Mother's Day is almost here. Although, I think mothers should not just be celebrated once an year. They deserved to be thanked every day for their unconditional love and support. Being a mom has made me realize what a tough job it is, and thus my appreciation for my own mother increases by multiple folds with each passing day.

Since our cross country move, my son has been asking me to do a class project at his new school. So, we decided to make something little for mother's day. An year or so back, my son had brought home salt dough pendant necklace for mother's day, and I had totally loved it. I decided to do the same. But instead of salt dough, we used clay from the craft store(Sculpey brand).

I let kids knead and roll their own clay, so the shapes are not perfect, but that adds to its charm. The chose a flower or a leaf to make an impression on the clay, and their reactions when they removed the leaf were worth watching. After baking as per the instructions, I took it back for kids to paint these.

On the back, we stamped the word 'love'.

Did a small fingerprint pendant as well.

Some chose to make a heart instead. This one is my favorite.

After the paint dried up, we put it all through a leather string. We are ready to ship ours to grandmothers in India. Hopefully, these will reach in time.

Happy Mother'd Day!

DIY Succulent Planters

2015-03-09T13:02:00.000-07:00

Last summer I was determined to prove(to myself) that I was capable of growing plants. So, unlike all the other times, instead of going crazy with exotic plants and going overboard with the number of plants, I decided to focus on just few plants especially succulents.

The first few successes with succulents really encouraged me. Now, some people may think that growing succulents is easy, as these are generally hardy plants. But in the past, on multiple occasions, I have managed to kill succulents, either by over watering or by drying it out for too long. So, it was a major feat when for couple of months I managed to sustain the few varieties of succulents I had.

With this success, I decided to propagate from leaves. It was a slow process but was quite enjoyable. I really went crazy and tried to propagate all the varieties of succulents I had plus some more that I could find in the neighborhood and from friends. Needlesandleaves has a nice article which explains in detail this process of propagating. With quite a large number of babies, I found myself in need of more pots for my new plants.

I decided to create the DIY concrete planters at home. I used plain cement/concrete mix from the store and followed the instructions on it to make the concrete mix. There are many different versions on the internet to mix other stuff in cement/concrete mix to make the planters light. But I decided to keep things simple(and heavy) for this time.

First we needed various containers in fun shapes and sizes. My son K was responsible for this one. He not only came up with ideas on what we could use, but also cut the containers to desired height.

For one pot: 2 containers are needed: a bigger outside container, and a small container that would fit inside the outside bigger container.

Ideas for outside container:
Milk carton cut to half
Small beach buckets/pail
Plastic Jug

Ideas for inside container:
Thick water/juice bottle
Milk carton
Plastic cups

Here are the steps we followed:

Step 1: Choose a bigger outer planter, and a smaller inner planter. Spray the outer bigger bowl with cooking spray.

Step 2: Drill/Poke a hole in both outer and inner bowl.

Step 3: Insert a straw (thick) between both the inner and outer planter and align them. The straw will ensure that the hole(for drainage) does not get filled up with concrete mix.

Step 4: Pour concrete mix in the outer bowl only, and press the inner bowl into it. Let this dry for over a day or two.

Step 5: When the concrete has completely dried, remove or cut off the outer and inner planter bowls.

To be safe, I used succulent potting mix for all my succulent babies. I plan to make many more of these pots once the spring is here.

Happy Planting!

Rustic Log Succulent Planter

2014-08-11T12:29:00.000-07:00

This summer was one of my most active ones, especially when it came to maintaining my garden. My mother would be so proud of me :). My OH is actually very impressed this year because until now, he was convinced that I had a black thumb. So, as I saw my plants doing well this summer, it gave me motivation to make some interesting planters especially for my succulents.

I had this log with me from over an year, all polished and ready to go. It has a finish of polyurethane on it, which protects the bark. For converting it into a succulent planter, it needed a 2 inch deep hole(as per some sources online). But without proper tools, I could only make it as deep as 1 inch. We shall see in due time if this was deep enough or not.

Added some cactus potting mix, and a baby off one of my hens & chicks plant.

Happy Gardening!

Wild Kratts Rakhi

2014-08-09T15:46:00.000-07:00

Rakhi or Rakshabandhan is just a day away. Rakhi is an Indian festival in which a brother and sister celebrate their love and strong bond. Sister ties a Rakhi (sacred thread) on her brother's wrist, and brother vows to protect his sisters lifelong.

This year, I was struggling to come up with some fun idea for younger kids in our family, until now. Oh, I am so excited. A Wild Kratts Rakhi with a creature power disc on it. Which Wild Kratts fan would not love it.

There were still some creature power discs that my son did not already have. I looked for them online and found most, except for the Tasmanian Tiger. So, I ended up making just that one, rest pulled from the internet.

Took a print out of all the discs on a thick cardstock, and got it laminated from a store nearby. These discs were smaller(1 1/2 to 2 inches) than the regular size. Using a glue gun, attached the discs to a ribbon or thread. And its done.

Well, my brothers and cousins got a much simpler Rakhi this time.

A very Happy Rakshabandhan to all my dear brothers and cousins.

Summer/Pool Birthday Party

2014-08-04T21:03:00.001-07:00

My little munchkin turned 2 last week. She is one girl who has been preparing for her birthday for a very long time. Her favorite pretend play is to build a birthday cake with lego blocks and repeatedly blow candles, and at the same time, singing the birthday song for herself.

With just a week to prepare for her party, and after some brainstorming with her brother, we finalized the fish/ocean theme for the party based on her favorite sleep buddy: clown fish, and decided to add kiddie pools and slip & slide for summer fun.

With not much time at hand, it was the first time I did not post the invites for the birthday party. We just did a simple evite. Well, there is always a first time.

On the day of her actual birthday, I baked a small cake, and her brother decorated it with air filled water balloons while she was taking a nap. Its a different thing that the balloons started popping when we lit the candles. By this time, Miss M did not care about the candles or the balloons and all she wanted was to take a big bite of the cake. So much that her brother got worried that she would not let anyone else have that cake.

For the party, which took place in our backyard, I had big plans of decorating. I thought I would start the decorations a day in advance, but the rain gods decided to bless us until few hours before the party. So, I did whatever I could in an hour. Reused the paper lanterns and some felt bunting.

Here's the cake table.

For the cake, I made the clown fish topper out of fondant along with some sponges and corals. There was also a star fish, but it did not make it to the party. K (M's brother) decided to check it out a day before the party, and it broke into pieces. One of the fish's fins also broke at that time. I did make another one before the party, but it lost in between the party chaos. So, our little topper has one missing fin. I am sure M did not mind.

Another look with some shells and coral decorations.

I wish I could make the fish smile a little bit more.

Maya's favourite marshmallows: coated with candy melts, brown sugar(for sand) and gold fish.

Chocolate cupcakes. I decided to go with the mini cupcakes to avoid any wastage.

Fun Fun

Birthday girl enjoying the fish suckers. I really doubt if any other kid got to try one as I think Miss M ate most of these.

Ice Cream time

Party Favors: Swim Goggles, stcikers, bubbles in watering can

Back to more fun...

This was by far the most fun birthday party. The moment the party started, I did not hear much from the kids. I did not organize any games as there was plenty to keep the kids busy. We literally had to drag the kids out of the pool and trampoline to cut the cake.

A very Happy Birthday to my little dare devil.

Summer Berry Cake

2014-06-12T20:31:00.001-07:00

Today we celebrated our 9th Wedding Anniversary. It was a nice relaxing day(after a very long time), and we ended it with having this beautiful cake which my older son baked for us(with Mommy's help of course). I had almost given up the idea of baking today, but he did not. Right after my little one slept, he reminded me that we still have to bake the Anniversary cake. I could not bring myself to say no, and I am glad I did not, because it were the best 2 hours spent. He wanted to do everything on his own, from measuring the ingredients, mixing the batter, some licking in between, and of course his non stop commentary. My husband sat in the background enjoying the whole show.

We still had some strawberries left from our last week's Strawberry picking at a farm. So, this cake from my favorite cake blog Call me a cupcake, fit our need perfectly.

My boy getting the mixer ready.

Adding the berries.

Waiting after the cake went in the oven.

We had to eventually convince him to go to bed as it was getting late in the night, and he could have it as his breakfast tomorrow morning. He was not really happy about it, but 'being difficult' is not a word in his dictionary, so off he went.

Rohit and I could not wait until tomorrow. After all, the anniversary is today.

I cannot wait to share this cake with kids tomorrow morning.

Looking forward to getting older with my best friend, and hopefully enjoying kids baked cake every year.

Happy Baking!

Pillow Case Dress

2014-06-11T19:43:00.001-07:00

My daughter really inspires me to make dresses for her. I never thought I would enjoy sewing that much. At least for now, I do love it, especially when it takes less than 2 days to whip out a dress for my little munchkin.

I bought this fabric long back on a sale at Joanns. Loved the animal print on it. This was before Miss M was born, and I was getting all ready for her. Back then, I made an baby dress from the pattern at Itty Bitty baby dress from this fabric, and she must have hardly worn it 4-5 times. Babies grow up so fast. Realizing this, I was little discouraged from sewing anymore until she was little more grown up. Fast forward 2 years, I think both her and I are ready to dance around comfortably in light airy dresses.

So, knowing my limited sewing skills, I am sticking to simple patterns, much to the disappointment of my mother. She is a perfectionist and liked to make the most beautiful intricate dresses for me and my sister when we were growing up. We had matching purses to go with the dresses, decorated belts, handmade buttons, and hair accessories. On seeing the simple dresses that were being made for her precious granddaughter, she offered to send me her pattern book.. Well she would have to do more than that.. maybe I can convince her to take a break from crocheting, and instead sew some of those frilly dresses for Miss M. Knowing her, I know I would never hear a No from her, so I have to be very selective of what I ask of her.

So back to the dress, here is the pillow case dress I sew for my darling little girl. I saw couple of tutorials on the net and eyeballed the measurements. But still posting a link to one tutorial here. Miss M loves to choose which side to wear in front each time: Hippo or Giraffe. It’s great for the hot summer days.

I am thinking of making another one, but with a belt at the waist, which I think could make it more dressy.

Happy Sewing!

Father's Day Idea #2 : Handmade Keychains

2014-06-10T20:19:00.003-07:00

This is a great craft which even younger children (4+) can make as Father's day gift. These key chains was completely my son's idea. He did the needle work on these star shaped plastic canvas that can be purchased at any craft store. It started as a part of stitchery work at his school. He loved doing it so much, that I got him few patterns for the summer.

He liked these star shapes the most. These are around 4 inches, not too small, but can work as a key chain. He chose all the colors for these stars, some were embroidery threads mixed with knitting yarn.

We backed it with felt using hot glue. Added the keyrings, packed in small bags, and shipped all the way to India for Grand Pa.

Happy Crafting with your kids!

Father's Day Gift: DIY Canvas Picture

2014-06-05T20:30:00.000-07:00

Here is an idea for Father’s Day. A picture of grandkids on canvas for grandpa(Nanu).

I am super excited for this project. I have never gifted my Dad anything for Father’s Day before this, but this time, I decided to step up. It was never celebrated much while we were growing up, but now that we are far apart, it can serve as a reason to send some handmade stuff from kids/grand kids back home. And knowing my Dad, I am sure he will love it.

For this you would need:

Blank Canvas
Picture the size of canvas
Modge Podge
Foam brush
Brayer or Roller

A while back, I had picked up three 12 * 12 canvas from the craft store on sale. They have been laying in my store for quite some time now, and there is no better time to put it to good use than now.

On Picasa, I added the text to the picture, and used staples to get a 12 by 12 print on glossy paper. It is half the price from Walgreens. Also, at Staples they will actually print the pic of size 12 by 12 or any size you need. At Walgreens, you would have to cut the picture to fit the canvas.

I also took an engineer print of the photograph without text for my home, and decided to try my hand at this process using this engineer print first. It cost me 0.60 cents for the engineer print.. Unbelievable!!! So if anything goes wrong(which it did), I would be prepared before I did the final version.

Step 1: I saw some pictures online where the edges of the canvas were painted. If you choose to do this, now is the time. I decided to skip this step.

Step 2: Using the foam brush, apply an even thick layer of modge podge on the canvas.

Step 3: Then stick the picture on the canvas. This step is easier with a thick photo paper instead of thin engineer print. With the engineer print, there were lots of bubbles formed. You can use the brayer or roller to remove these bubbles.

Step 4: After the bubbles are out, apply another layer of modge podge on the top of picture, and around the edges of canvas, and let it dry.

In the engineer picture below, I did not use the brayer, and all the bubbles can be seen. It looks better after drying, but still its not as smooth.

Here is the one with thick photo paper. There were hardly any bubbles. Whatever were there, I smoothed it using the brayer. This one looks perfect.

I noticed that even though it was harder to work with the engineer print(and its only in BW), the canvas texture can be seen through it because it’s so thin. And so, it looks so much close to the actual prints on canvas. I will post the results of Engineer print on canvas using the brayer, hopefully without any bubbles soon.

We wrapped the gift in drawing sheet from kid’s drawing table. It had some random drawing done by kids.

Added some handmade cards for Nanu, and its ready to be posted in this gift box from usps. Now hoping Indian Postal System would do its part and deliver in time.

Happy Crafting!
Oh.. BTW, if my Mom is reading this post, please let it be a surprise for Nanu Papa. I know its going to be very hard, but try NaniMa:)

Knitted Hair Bows

2014-05-23T17:30:00.000-07:00

Hands down, knitting these little bows, has to be my favourite project so far. It involves my biggest stress reliever activity : knitting, and especially uncomplicated knitting. I remember from a very young age, I could fill my hours doing nothing but knitting. The end result however wasn't much, as all I wanted to do was knit straight lines. And if someone asked what I was knitting, I would simply say its something for my pet cat Kitty.

These bows are simpler than what I have ever done. From the scrap yarn, I knit small rectangular pieces(all rows purl), as shown below.

Then pinch it from the center and tie a thread around the middle. As simple as that.

On the back, either glue the clip, or stick it in through the center thread. From experience, glue works better, especially if the bows are worn by kids. As soon as my daughter realizes she has a bow in her hair, she wants to check it out immediately, and so the pulling begins. In such cases, glued clip holds better.

For variety, I tried another set with Seed stitch(R1 : knit one, purl one stitch, R2: purl one , knit one). And for the center, instead of a thread, knit a narrow string in a contrasting color.

Hope you get some ideas from this to use the left over yarn.

Update: I finally got a pic of Miss M modelling with one of the bows.

And soon she realizes that there is a bow in her head, and the pulling starts.

Happy Knitting!

Mason Jar Terrarium

2014-05-19T09:39:00.000-07:00

This Friday was the last day of school, and we decided to thank the teachers at my son's school with these Mason Jar Terrariums. Both my kids had fun assembling these.

Except for the succulents, we had all the material from the Dinosaur Terrarium that we made 3 years back. We followed the basic directions of the terrarium as mentioned here. Kids enjoyed hunting for the moss in the yard for the project, which we added in addition to the Hens and Chicks succulent.

I added a garden twine to hang the mason jars. Followed the directions here for hanging with twine. To make the twine secure around the jar, I used E6000 glue.

For our own home, we made 2 planters out of it along with the terrarium, for the kitchen window.

Thanks to all the wonderful teachers out there!

Peasant Dress

2014-05-06T22:25:00.001-07:00

I think all my posts can start with: 'I am finally back with another post'. It might seem like I am not upto much these days, but the truth is, I enjoy working on my projects so much more than blogging about it. This brings me back to thinking, why I started this blog hmm..

Between this post and my last post, I have worked on so many projects, but its too late(or boring?) to post about most. But I will definitely be back with my son's 5th Birthday post soon. Between multiple laptop crashes, and switching to PC from MAC, transferring of pictures(not complete), mixed with my laziness, it keeps getting postponed.

Probably I need to explore on how to blog from my iphone, while directly uploading pics from it. So many steps eliminated.

Anyway, back to the original topic of this post. A peasant dress for my little monster.She is growing up super fast. With summer here, I am sewing a lot of simple dresses for her. What could be simpler and cuter than a peasant dress. A pillowcase dress? But that's for another post (if I ever get to it).

I followed this tutorial from sewmuchado. I had earlier used this tutorial to make a dress for M while I was pregnant with her. Here is a picture of M when she was just few days old in her peasant dress. Those days are a blur now.

I wish time would go by little slower so I could enjoy each stage of my super strong willed girl, a bit more, oh and sew (and maybe blog) tons of more dresses for her.

Happy Sewing!

Holi!!!

2014-03-15T23:36:00.002-07:00

Holi, the festival of colors, is just around the corner. It used to be(and still is) my favorite festival but since we left India, there were times we came to know about it only after it passed or we celebrated it by just a mere visit to the temple. But with kids, it's my worry, that being so far away from our country, it gets more difficult for them to learn and understand their culture. We now try to celebrate some of our festivals with our friends and most importantly, with children's friends, as I think the easiest way to teach our children about our festivals is to involve the people they hang out with, as well in the celebration.

We made it a point to celebrate it last year, and for this year, we plan to do the same. I didn't get around to posting then, but here it is now. We set the park as a venue, and invited almost all our friends. Once the invitations were out, it was time to get tons of gulaal (color powder). With many kids invited, and with all the news on the chemicals mixed in the holi colors, I decided to take up the task of making my own colors. It turned out to be a very simple and reasonably cheap project.

I ordered a big box of mixed Tempera non toxic paint powder(Colorations brand) from amazon. To prepare the color powder, I mixed paint powder in equal quantity of corn starch powder. I got this idea from Cute As a Fox blog. A food processor can be used for the mixing. I mixed one color using this. But for the rest, I opted to mix with hand.

For the kids to play with colors, I used the colorations bottles with 2 holes drilled on the top. I also laid disposable bowls filled with colors for adults.

There was lots of food, as some of our friends pitched in and brought Indian food. I forgot to take a picture of all the food. And ofcourse, there was Thandai(minus the bhaang/alcohol). What would a Holi be without thandai.

How could I not bake something for the kids.. I made these colorful sponge cupcakes. Ofcourse I iced these, but no picture of it. There were too many happy kids to take picture of, rather than the food.

Happy Holi!

Valentine Airplane Cards

2014-02-11T13:33:00.001-08:00

Its that time of the year again : Valentine's Day. If you have children of school going age, it probably involves sending a valentine card for an entire class. So, like most of the years, this year too, we decided to make the cards at home.

What kid is not fascinated with airplanes at some point in life. This Valentines, my 4 year old and I came up with the idea of Airplane Valentines cards for his class at school.

It was perfect timing, as couple of weeks back, we had picked up a Paper Airplane book from library and practiced most of the airplanes in it.

My son chose a Raptor Airplane and we started the long process of making 25 of these planes. The thinner the paper, the better it is. Its difficult to get all the details and minute folds with a heavy cardstock.

There is not much space to write on the airplane, and really, its too much to ask a 4 year old to write 25 cards. So, my son wrote his name on a piece of paper, which I scanned and added rest of the message to it, and printed the whole thing. We added it to the airplane as a banner with a thread and a punched hole.

These cards went zooming to the class along with some Valentine's cookies.

Happy Valentine's Day!

DIY Halloween Planes(Dusty) Costume

2013-10-15T08:45:00.001-07:00

My 5 year old is obsessed with Dusty Crop Duster, from the Planes movie. And that is what he wanted to be this Halloween. I tried my best to change his mind, gave him options of a pilot or something human like, and how it would be difficult to make a planes costume that really looks like one. But he said, 'Mom, you just need to make one out of cardboard and not fabric. It won't be that hard'. I still gave him few more days, showed him pictures of other simple costumes, but no, he would not budge. Well, if that's what he wants.. plus its his birthday month, so I gave in.

I really had to search hard on the internet to find if there was an existing tutorial, and I found this awesome one from Desertchicaramblings. It was quite simple to make. One trip to our basement and I found all that was needed. Thanks to my husband who never throws away any boxes(or anything).

I hope this costume lasts until Halloween. Its in heavy use these days, and its wings are taking a toll.

Its hard to take any pictures of a plane in action, but I tired.

Happy Halloween!

Miss M’s Indian Birthday Party

2013-09-02T22:37:00.001-07:00

I still get surprised when I see my baby girl running around. And I am left wondering on where the last year went by? My heart feels heavy and happy at the same time when I see her grow up so fast. I was in denial that she was going to turn one in July, for so long, that I did not even start thinking about her birthday until June. This led to her dad getting worried if I was even planning on celebrating her 1^st birthday at all.

So, I accepted the fact that I cannot stop her from reaching the first big milestone of 1, buckled up and started preparing for it. We had agreed on the Indian theme long time back.

First were the Invites:

I wanted to use something other than the elephant, as that was all I could see on the ideas on Indian theme on internet. India is not just about Elephants. So, went with the peacock, and why not, after all it’s the National Bird of India. The background image is of Hindu shlokas in Sanskrit.

Even though there was nothing babyish about the card, I did want to add some touch which would give a birthday feel. So, added balloon liners to the envelope.

Table Layout

As the place that we had booked, gave us only an hour for decorations, I had to decide on something simple and big with more impact, instead on numerous small decorations. I got orange and pink paper lanterns, and some bulbs to go inside it. Never ended up using the bulbs, as it never got that dark(read no time). Also, we had time to put up only half of the lanterns I bought. My brother in law was at it the minute we entered, and he did his best to put up as many as possible.

We decided to get the food catered from outside, but at some crazy moment, I made the decision to bake the cake, or shall I say cakes for the party. A week before the party, I thought I was baking and icing non stop. 8 cakes… no kidding. For those who do not believe me: 2 smash cakes, 2 cakes for party, 1 cake for cake pops, 1 for the actual birthday, and 1 for my darling sister(but we ended up saving it for the party).

Here is the chocolate cake for her actual birthday.

Smash Cake No 1

Smash Cake No 2: for the party

Going with the theme of the party, made pink and orange cake. Added some Henna style designs with golden icing. By the time I started to get my hand set on it, I ran out of golden icing. Set the cake on my favourite wood rustic cake stand.

This Bundt cake is what I had baked for my sister’s birthday, which is one day after Miss M’s. But we thought we might not have enough for the party, and saved it. As it was bundt cake, there were not many options on decorating it. Iced it in cream cheese icing. Added a silk flower and a banner. Made this banner from beautiful printables from Kalyani Designs.

Red Velvet Cake Pops: I made these cake pops using the recipe here and decorated with Henna designs on it(alteast that’s what I tried).

For the cake pops stand, I bought wood slabs from Michaels, and drilled holes in it.

Marshmallows: Coated some marshmallows with orange and pink candy melts. No pictures of it though.

First Birthday Stats

For the background of the cake table, I clubbed together some of Maya’s pics over the last year, and printed in in polaroid. Actually these are not true polaroid. I had to use Picasa’s Collage feature to create a picture with white background of true digital size of 4 *5.3. Then placed the pic in the center of this collage. That was the only way I could make it work.

I used two frames that I found in the basement of our 100 year old house. Covered the picture it had with brown kraft wrapping paper, and hung the photographs on hemp strings. In between the 2 frames, added a birthday banner. I had also made pink fabric ruffled frills to go along with the banner, but it never made it, as we had limited time to put stuff on.

Maya's felt birthday hat

For the table cloths, I used burlap with a wide width, with runners on it. Made runners from the crushed velvet fabric and block printed on it. More on the runners here.

I wanted to paint the mason jars in the colors of the party, but there was absolutely no time to do so. Instead I colored the water that went in the jars. I think it worked equally good. In addition to that, I decorated the jars with Swarovski in paisley designs.

Block Print Goodie bags

I bought ready made bags and block printed on it in golden, orange and pink.

Favors: I bought these magnets from Chumbak with an Indian Hand. For kids, there were Ganesha and mouse charms along with some candy.

For girls, there were bangles and bindis.

Moochi(Moustache counter). I cut these moustache out of felt, and glued a small portion of band aid at the back.

Food Labels

Indian Dinner

I loved making these food labels with some detail for each food item on it.

Sweet Boxes

Which Indian party would be complete without mouth watering Indian sweets. I packed some (laddoo and kaju rolls) in kraft boxes, and embellished these with hand crafted paper roses. Each guest left with one of this.

Smash Cake Time

Cake cutting

There was Pinata in the end, which kept kids busy, while we wrapped up the party.

Here's wishing my darling daughter a very Happy Birthday and a heartfelt thanks for filling our lives with laughter and love always.

Other Details

Printable peacocks from Graphic Express

Silk Peony flower on bundt cake from simplyserra

Felt Birthday Hat from Mosey shop

Printables from Kalyani Designs

Kraft Boxes from The Package House

Rakhi Tutorial

2013-08-12T22:15:00.000-07:00

Rakhi or Raksha Bandhan, an Indian festival is just around the corner. This festival celebrates the strong bond between a brother and a sister, wherein the sister ties rakhi(thread) on her brothers' and cousins' wrist, and the brothers in return vow to protect and take care of their sisters lifelong. I am lucky to have all my brother and cousins to share this occasion with.

This year, on my mother's encouragement, I decided to make my own Rakhis. Here in US there anyway is not much variety to choose from. This year, even Maya had to tie/send Rakhis to her brother and cousins. The rakhis offered here were too simple for kids. All the more reason to make own Rakhis.

While my Mom was visiting us few months ago, she bought embroidery/cross stitch thread(in 3 colors) for me for this purpose. So thoughtful of her.

For a 12 inch long Rakhi, I cut four 15 inch long thread of same color. Did the same with other 2 colors.

Tied all the 3 colors together to make a braid.

Made the braid, and knotted the other end, and cut the edges to even length. I know the threads pic above does not match with the braid below. Atleast I have a pic :)

For my brother and cousins, I sent these simple braided threads. But for little ones, these are too plain. So, added the embellishment with some hot glue. I got some 3D stickers like Guitar and Panda.

Finished by adding a small piece of felt on the back side with hot glue.

Also made some with Ganesha charms.

Happy Raksha Bandhan to my dearest brother and cousins.

Block Print Goodie Bags and Table Runners

2013-07-28T21:15:00.001-07:00

I am back with a post after ages. I was so busy with all the projects I had undertaken for my daughter’s first birthday, that there was no time to blog. And with 2 kids, I can either find time to work on my projects or blog about it, but hardly to do both.

I have been recently hooked to Block Printing. I can’t wait for my next visit to India, to pick up plenty of wooden hand crafted blocks. But as that trip won’t be soon, and I have never been known to be patient enough, I ordered few blocks from etsy buyer Amada Jones . There were many other sellers, but I settled with her as she buys blocks from artisans in India at tourist prices instead of low bulk prices.

Here are the stamps I bought:

With these stamps. especially the last stamp on right, I was taken back to the days when my Mom and Maseeji(aunt) used to buy us block print Indian dresses. And there were days when me, my sis or my cousin would unintentionally end up wearing the same dress, and only people’s glares made us realize that we were dressed same.

Initially, I had these huge plans of sewing goodie bags for my daughter’s birthday from muslin cloth(after dyeing it pink) and then doing a block print on it. After just dyeing a test fabric, I realized how time consuming it was going to be. So, I bought ready made linen bags from oriental trading, and used those for dyeing.

For block printing, this is what you would need:

1) Fabric paint, Rits Dye or Block Printing Dye

2) Cardboard

3) Brayer

4) Fabric to paint on

I used both fabric paint and Dye, and would prefer dye, as its easy to go on the blocks and easy to remove as well. I had a tough time removing the fabric paint off the blocks.

Step 1: Put a cardboard behind or in between the fabric

Step 2: Pour the paint on a cardboard and roll the bryer on the paint.

Step 3: Use the brayer to get the paint on the block

Step 4: Press the block to the fabric with some pressure.

Warning : It can be addictive.

Once I was done with block printing, for some bags I removed the thread those bags came with, and replaced it with the thin strips from runner fabric. I don't have any picture of those bags. Hopefully, the photographer from the party must have got it. Not left with any golden print bags either. Those were the first ones to go at the party.

Now Block printing the Runners

My brain must have exploded thinking about some ideas for cost effective runners. After wracking my brain for what seems like eternity, I settled on the crushed panne velvet fabric from Joann’s. I liked its crushed look and thought it would look good all by itself. But when I dressed it with burlap(which was to be the table cloth), the runners looked too plain to use as is. On top of that, tables at the venue were not wide enough to use the runners length wise. But I had already purchased the fabric, so there was no going back. I decided to use it width wise, 3 per table. And for dressing up the runners, the idea of block printing the runners hit me. I was little worried if block printing was doable as the fabric was synthetic. But, the print went on it like that’s what the fabric was made for.

Added a border on both sides.

Some in orange as well.

I can’t wait to make some block print drapes. Maybe I can go back to my canvas drapes, and add this block print to it.. hmmm

Happy Block Printing!

Crossover Pinafore Dress and Barefoot Sandals

2013-05-10T13:30:00.000-07:00

I thought I will never get around to posting any of the dresses I made for my little Miss M. This is the first dress I had sewn for her, right before she was born, and so its size was a little off. It did not fit her until now. So I could get her to model for me only recently.

The pattern and tutorial of this dress is from smashedpeasandcarrots. As its a reversible dress, here is the other side.

We were visiting our friends for Kentucky Derby, and I thought, even though she won’t be able to keep a hat on, she still needed to dress up a bit. So, from the fabric left from the dress, I made matching barefoot sandals for her using fold over elastic. Check out the tutorial for the sandals here.

Now, I need to pull my old pictures for all the other dresses I had sewn and find time to post it. Maybe I need to wait until Miss I (my niece) can wear the same dresses and so I will have 2 beauties modeling for me.

Happy Sewing!

Yummiest Chocolate Cake Ever!

2013-04-26T21:55:00.001-07:00

For my hubby's birthday last week, I baked this chocolate cake, which as per him and my kiddo, is the best chocolate cake I have ever baked. And I I totally agree with him. This is going to be my go-to recipe for a dense chocolate cake.

The recipe for this cake is from one of my favorite cake blogs Call me cupcake. The ingredients at her blog are in dl(decilitre). 1 dl = 0.42 cup. Below is the approximate conversion of ingredients in cups:

Chocolate cake Ingredients

•1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
•2 cup sugar
•1/2 cup cocoa powder
•1 tsp baking powder
•2 tsp baking soda
•2 large eggs
•1cup dl strong coffee
•1 cup buttermilk
•1/2 cup vegetable oil
•1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Chocolate fudge frosting

•300 grams butter at room temperature
•2 cup powdered sugar
•1/2 cocoa powder
•200 grams dark chocolate, chips or chopped
•1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
•1 vanilla bean or 1 tsp vanilla extract

Hop over to her blog here, to get the entire recipe. I cannot wait to make this cake again. The thick and creamy chocolate fudge frosting goes very well with the cake.

Happy Baking!