Displaying Pfingstrose in Sea Glass

Confession: I am a poor plant care taker. I find keeping plants as difficult as doing math. Too much water..they'll die, too less you murdered them. Too much sunshine..they get a sun stroke..no light..fungus. I can only take care of my child. Period.

 

 

Rant: I once read in a book that if a doctor's waiting room has fake plants, don't trust him too much!

I don't know how true that is..but I began hating artificial flora when at a point my mother made huge flower decorations all around our home, on the sideboard, on the mirror, table center piece, in every vase and where not!

 We lived in an army colony and the army wives had this obsession with using  spray painted tree barks and fake flowers!

 I had been avoiding this rosey trap since then..until more recently.

 I wanted to have big peonies or hydrangeas displayed in my main entrance of the flat.

 

 

A trip to Ikea and I got just four of these spring roses in pink.

 

 I'm loving the color boost they give.

Not fresh ; still they do the job for the eye.

To display them I used an old mason's jar with a broken lid. I used a mixture of glue, water and just drops of blue food color to make a sea glass effect. You can find lots of ways to make blue glass on the web. I tried it for the first time..had drips but not noticeable. I'm thinking of making some more sea glass bottles for my bathroom window.

Thats it for now. I hope the skies are clearer soon and we can be back out in the sand.

Scrambling : Wall Art

Yes that's what we called it back in college. Scrambling. All you need to do is to scramble a rough pattern onto your work surface with a pencil.

 I used normal card paper.

 I have done this before, filling the entire spaces of the resulting pattern with either monochromatic or analogous colors. This time however, I chose to fill in only a few spaces and then erase the remaining pencil lines. 

 

I did plan to use paint but while I was looking for my black paint In the box I got hold of a black permanent marker..and changed my mind.

This was much quicker like 2 minutes!

 

 

Simple piece of bold abstract art. Totally my style!

When it Rains, it Pours

You might have noticed in the news about the recent shower bursts in Gemany, Austria and Czech. It literally was raining cats and dogs and cows and sheep!

image

 

The Danube river has flooded and Bavaria has witnessed its highest flood levels in 70 years they say. We are in the south too, but fortunately only the balcony flooded a bit..no issues other than that. BUT we were forced to spend a mega long weekend at home. Thursday being a bank holiday, Friday Mr. took off and then the weekend. OK..News bulletin ends here.
 

 

All snuggled up under the quilt..I've been reading the translated works of Manto.. Got my hands on a second hand book, delivered just in time before the mini holiday. I found a handwritten note by the previous owner inside it.

 

It reads: Manto plays few notes but makes a grand symphony.....quietly.

Nothing much happened on the craft tab lately, just two tiny projects..which I will be sharing soon.

 

Watercolor and Paper Collage on Canvas

I was aspiring to try out watercolors. Had a canvas laying around..but was low on my original idea generation skills..so I did a quick search for some inspiration and instantly wanted to try this art design that I found on Etsy.

Just under an hour later I had my own version ready to go on my empty red wall.

 

I loved the ink used by the artist and the geometric pattern was what caught my eye in the first place-

 

I had this second hand book which I got because of its aged paper and the font. I tore some pages and modpodged them.

 

I also used a tea stain to add a vintage hint.

 

 When asked my my husband what I would call this painting..as if I was a fine art master...the first response that came to my mind was a proverb in Urdu...'Darya ko Kozay Mein Band Kar '

 

 

When forced to explain further (imagine the the effort he was putting in to show his interest in  artwork. Almost ridiculously funny!! )

End result..well kind of ok..but I knew I wont come up with a fine piece. I only wanted to experiment and have fun trying to be avant garde!

Ricotta Cheese Khoya / Mawa

This is a quick note for anyone who's looking for a khoya Substitute to make sweet delicacies without fail. I always thought of it to be the trickiest things to try but hey this man in the Video made it look sooo fuss free. No fancy kitchen or measuring Cups..just a plain home made Video helped me make the best Ghulab Jamuns I've ever made before.

If you live in a place where desi Shops are far and few  and dont stock on khoya..this is the recipe to go for. Look no further.
Here's the tried and tested recipe:

• 250 gms Ricotta Cheese
• 250 gms Milk

Reduce into a soft Dough by continuously stirring both Ingredients on a low flame.

My Dishes Went Unwashed Today

Catharsis Following: You may skip the following paragragh.

I'm a stay at home mama and to be really honest leaving the sanctuary of my home  is at times overwhelming...I have a thousand spiders crawling in my mind even if I have to leave the home for just a small trip! Is the window closed, is it nap time, did he eat enough, are his clothes ok, are the nails cut, did I pack an emergency snack, will his milk stay warm that long, did I take the laundry off the rack, is that garbage stink or a diaper? i think this place needs  dusting..oh no I should vaccum first then the dusting..ahh but first I have to put the one million toys we have back into the boxes and then start cleaning..What time is it...ahh should fix a cup of tea before I leave..I'll just wash the mug I used for breakfast..oh now that Im at it I'll quickly do the rest of the plates too. We're getting late..yell out to the child to put his shoes on...knowing well that he can't. telling him off for not listening. I'm tired now..but I should take him out to not feel guilty later. He doesn't want to sit in his push chair..things heat up..and I pitty myself for a while..get over it. See all other kids are also there playing with their moms..who look like they just stepped out of a spa. The worry of getting back home , giving him a bath and putting dinner on table soon takes over. 

I wrote it down not to complain but to point out that we sometimes get into this spiral of 'Things to Do '.  For no one is going to give us a trophy for being the best house keeper and the best doer of all things motherly! We need to pause || and look at the larger picture and not just work towards getting our names into the golden books of people who don't even bother.Why should they?

 In my mother's words everything in the universe will not come into a perfect alignment with your plans, you have to adjust and work along. True it is. The weather will not always be perfect, the energy levels will not always be the same, the dishes in the sink are not what your child will remember when he grows up and tells everyone about his childhood. Having said all of that, I admire all the people who can do it all at the same time. Reading blogs has opened up my mind towards so
many things that other people out their are doing and doing them well. 

All this monolouge was actually triggered by this deeply honest poem that I came across on another blog. Word.

My dishes went unwashed today

I didn’t make my bed

I took his hand and followed

Where his eager footsteps led

Oh, yes, we went a little adventuring

My little child and I

Exploring all the great outdoors

Beneath the sun and sky

We watched a robin feed her young

We climbed a sunlit hill

Saw cloud-sheep scamper through the sky

We plucked a daffodil

That the house was so neglected

That I didn’t brush the stairs

In twenty years, no one on earth

Will know or even care

But that I’ve helped my little child

To noble adulthood grow

In twenty years the whole wide world

May look and see and know

Random TIp: Cleaning Heavily Smogged Windows

Before the summer sun completely shines through my windows, I decided to clean my ceiling to floor windows that run across the entire length of the living room. Man this job is worth a weeks workouts! It was another task I had been ignoring for sometime now.

Grub gathered throughout the long and slushy winters...All gone. Here's a quick tip.

Use a telescopic Mop for tall and wide Windows like mine. Use a clean towel attachement and get scrubbin' it all of in long strides.

Since I don't have a hose I had to wipe the cleaning mixture off instead of running it down using water. I took a bucket of water and added rough amounts of Fairy Dish wash liquid, and a generous splurt of glass shinner (made for dish washers)  in it too.

 I used a reusable towel attachement ..washing and wringing it in this solution..until all the black stuff came off..my Windows get really really dirty because I live on a main road on ground floor!

Don't let this dry..work quickly to avoid streaks. To wipe it off use the same but well washed mop and then the BEST Thing that cleans glass..use a ball of scrunched up newspaper!

I sprayed the entire window with sporadic splashes of glint and used the newspaper to rub it off in circular movements until I could see my sweaty face in the glass!

Whoopsie..forgot to take an after Picture!