Back again

Now that my second baby is an year old i have stared reading books/blog and i suddenly remembered that I once used to have a blog..checked it..not dead..yippeee.

I'm one busy moma..

Hopefully I will be writing often.

I have left sewing long back..sorry ladies..no more craft posts, at least till my little one is off to play school.

We still do travel a lot,my son still has allergic eczema and my little one is an energizer bunny (is it just me or does anyone else remember that Duracell advertisement.)

I have been trying to shift towards natural living.. Not the hard core kind but what ever I can do towards healthy living and clean environment..

So you will see quite a bit on these random 

things..

Bye

Belur- Chikmagalur- Charmadi ghat

Date Of Travel : Sep 03 2011
Mode: Car
Stay : The hidden valley chickmaglur

We love the greenery and when ever we plan a trip, we end up going to some green ghats..Belur & Chickmaglur have been there in our 'to go' list for a long time for so thats where we went this time. :)
Blame hubby's work load, the planning and booking were done in the last minute , read Friday 8-9pm!! I normally want everything to be planned and packed well beforehand and this was something totally new to me .. but it worked out fine and turned out to be one of our best trips..
The alarm was set for 5am but woke up at 6am :) . Total chaos !! we left our house by 6.50am.
The route:
Hassan- belur- Hidden valley.
We had trouble finding NH4 and crossing the city itself took 1 hr.
We reached Belur by 12.30pm. I know i am not the first or last to say this.. but belur temple is beautiful. It was breathtaking..slight drizzle,cold pleasant weather. We just sat in the mandapa and enjoyed the calm serene atmosphere. To be frank i have never enjoyed being in a temple so well before.. may be it was due to the weather or lack of crowd or simply the beauty of the place.
Now for few snaps.





By 1.30pm we left belur had lunch from Vishnu regency.. hardly 1km from temple. Ask anyone, they will guide you. The road from belur to Handi is narrow and a bit bad.We reached Hidden valley by 3pm. It is not a fancy place, just a small house with few rooms. We took a room with the pond view as we were the only guests then. The location and surroundings is again great.. We had a great time there walking around the plantation, boating and simply relaxing. They had caroms and kido enjoyed learning it. The food was delicious simple home cooked meal..and the coffee was to die for .. did i say that we had cup after cup of the same!! Suraj Appaji, the manager was very helpful. Since it was raining we were not able to go for trek in the jeep, so just to make our kido happy he took us on a small drive sans any charge. Kido's allergy didnt give us much trouble this time.. so had peaceful night.
I had seen the snaps of Charmadi ghat road and wanted to go there. Suraj suggested that we go after breakfast,drive few kilometers through the ghat section come back , have lunch and then visit halebidu..It turned out to be a great plan.
Charmadi ghat lived up to our expectations and was even better than the photos. We drove few kilometers on the charmadi ghat road and here are the few snaps.



On the way to Charmadi ghat.





There were many such waterfalls on the way.





Came back had lunch and left for halebidu.Reached there by 3pm. The place was well maintained with lawns around. The carvings were exquisite and much more than Belur temple but the charm was missing.. I liked Belur a lot better than Halebidu, may because it has a natural old world beauty to it ..
Thats all for now , back to home ...

New findings..

Its been a while since my last post and this is for the fellow craft enthusiasts..
I just found a new place to get good materials, cotton and other stuff in commercial street. Its very difficult to go all the way to chickpet for the same,so the new findings.
Pooja collections.
No:8, D.R.Towers, 126/127,Dispensary road,near commercial street.
Very well organised and wide range of materials at by far the cheapest rates in commercial street.
There is Khadi bhandar few feet from Pooja collections on dispensary rd. The prices are higher than pooja collections and is cramped with clothes ,with very little space to walk around . Obviously they have a huge collection, if you have time and patience i recommend a visit. Make sure you check the clothes for holes courtesy godown ambiance and the cockroaches i guess..
I recommend good cotton silks from Pooja collections, a visit to Punjab tailors and get great embroidery at say 150 Rs for works on neck and sleeves.
Punjab tailors
#3,Lakshmana mudaliar street(commercial street cross).
Stitch it and voila, u have a beautiful kurta.. I am very happy with mine...

Next up is a craft shop,nothing fancy about this one.. just good-old,hole in the wall type.
Devi and company
130/131,Ethiraj Complex
Ibrahim sahib street,near commercial street.
Ph:09845066498
They have wooden block prints,screen printing stuff, soap making stuff,fabric paint etc etc..I got my wooden block prints from here, they have a huge collection. The prices are almost same Rs. 35,40,60, as the one in Jayanagar 4th block( The craft store inside 4th blck complex,ground floor near the area where u get all the pooja and birthday stuff)
Thats all for today.

Bags

Photos of the bags i made.
My better half have tried and failed to teach me about photography fundas like aperture and shutter speed etc.. so obviously the photos are crap.. but visible..(i hope)!!

Bag 1 : Nerd bag from pillow case.
I bought this pillow cases caz it was thick and just big enough for the kind of bag i had in mind and i couldn't get the same thick material for bags in shops.So.. voila pillow case to bag , my first bag!!





This bag is with black lining and pockets.I removed the zipper from pillow case,made a slit in the middle, inserted a lining in the lower part and the flap part is left as it is, double layered.
I used a cotton belt for handle.


Bag2: Place mat to simple hand bag
This thick cotton place mat was double layered and i decided to make a semi circle shaped bag. Materials used were some plain brown cotton for sides and strap. Small black bangle to attach the strap and a zipper. This one is without a lining as i used the double layered mat as such.
Bag in making



Finished product

Sharing some good sewing ideas

In my last post there was few links to bag making tutorials.
In this i want to share some good sewing tutorials and tips..

Sewing general
Anybody who is into sewing and browse internet for some info knows about these sites.. still in case you missed.. great tutorials and inspirations and links to tuts
http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=10163
http://www.u-createcrafts.com/search/label/girls-clothing (check out the categories..!!)
Want a design or tutorial.. just search these sites and you are sure to get it..
Info on indian sewing designs
http://artvani-vani.blogspot.com/

Cap/hat making tutorials
http://mushroomvillagers.wordpress.com/the-eddie-cap-tutorial/-cap-tutorial/
http://indietutes.blogspot.com/2009/07/bush-hat.html
Videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlHDe9C-eHg&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGx6FQfg3Is&feature=related

Tips and tricks
A brilliant idea to make bias tape..
http://creativelittledaisy.typepad.com/creative_little_daisy/2007/11/diy-version-of.html

Thats all for now. I will keep adding more.

Bag maknig

I have been sewing stuff for me and my son for some time now. Recently i have taken up sewing bags..i am yet to post few snaps of my creations but i am a lousy photographer and my current canon camera doesn't do wonders !! Learning photography is next in queue, i will get to it someday..
Getting back to bags, i just wanted to share a great site with wonderful tutorials for bag making.
http://u-handbag.typepad.com/uhandblog/freebie-.html
I am yet to make any of Lisa's patterns, but i have learned a great deal. I have made 2 bags till now, a backpack and a daily use bag from a pillowcase.. I am yet to buy serious bag making supplies like buckles,snaps,leather,handles etc, so the delay.
My plan is to make 'Pleated and Darted Pouch' from the above mentioned site once i learn the art of adding lining to bags.
Yet another blog with list of bag tutorials.
http://frugalandthriving.com.au/2009/45-awesome-free-bag-making-tutorials/
By the way if you know any place in bangalore which sells wooden/cane/plastic bag handles, please do let me know..
I plan to make a visit to chickpet sometime this month. I will post the details once i make the visit.

Aroy,Bangalore

I fell in love with thai and mexican food after the stint in bay area, US and is in a hunt to find good thai and mexican restaurant in bangalore.
When i read about Aroy in Bangalore Mirror we decided to give it a try.
What we ordered is as follows.

TomYum soup:
Yummy ,simply the best i have ever tried bangalore.

Signature Appetizer Sampler Platter veg:
Just average.Spring rolls,golden triangles and Banana Blossom Cakes served with sweet and sour dip. Banana blossom cake was too oily for my taste and was bland and the dip was not sufficient, may be caz we love our dips.. :)

Apricot Glazed Cauliflower:
Great. I liked the burst of flavours and the portion was good for 3.

For the main course
Pineapple fired rice:
Just OK, The menu says "Pineapple fried Rice-With raisin, water chestnut rubies and nuts" and the one which we were served just had rice and finely chopped pineapple and no nuts or raisin not even a single one and pineapple was not ripe enough !! I should mention the rice which was used in it was really good.

Penang Curry veg
Simply Great.. the right flavours and the portion was big.

Pahd Thai:
The flavour was OK, but the rice noodle was not cooked properly and portion served was comparatively less. Felt the one served in beijing bites was better than this. :(

Dessert
Pumpkin Custard
Good. Nice presentation i should say..The custard was served in slices of small pumpkins(we are not supposed to eat the pumpkins,just the custard :)) and coconut icecream was good.

Now about the restaurant, the ambiance was great. We chose so sit in the open air and weather was just perfect, after rain and about to rain :)
I should mention the service was superb.. the manager, i assume, was always there to help us. They did tell us that penang curry and pineapple fried rice doesn't go well together and suggested we try plain rice to go with it, but since we were on a hunt to find "the thai restaurant " in bangalore we decided to take pineapple fried rice.
The prices were reasonable.

We will visit again to try the other items in the menu just because i know that they are taking understanding customer requirement to a new level.. kudos Aroy team, i just received a mail from the team,not auto reply ,custom made one based on the feedback form i filled..!!