Done!

Yippee!! I’m done. Well, I started this Needlepoint work 5 months ago. Can you believe it!! Five months. It was a 16 by 11 inch needlepoint kit by Dimensions-crafts. It is the first time I am doing needlepoint, and when I started it, I did not have a clue that it would take me this long. 

I rarely watched TV without doing some stitches, and there were few days when I did not spend some time with it. I guess my family got pretty much used to seeing it around. My father would be like – err..Why don’t you give a bit of rest to your eyes, my brother would yell – why have you kept this stuff of yours it in my favorite spot in the sofa yet again? And the maid who helped clean the house every weekend would be like – Still not done, eh?  

Two things that help me unwind are baking and needlework. And this one had been with me through sickness and health, ups and downs, good TV programs and bad ones, the monsoons and fine weather, and all those long evenings with nothing to do. Well, so finally, I am done with it, and I guess I’m not going to do another needlepoint in a while.

Now got to do a bit of ironing for the canvas and then off to get it framed for my wall.

For Inpalu!!

Inpa is a dear friend. We were college mates and have stuck on as tight buddies since – that’s something like 9-10 years. The facts that we have come back to Trivandrum after short/long stints in other places and work in the same building (we have exactly 4 flights of stairs between us) let us meet whenever we want, welcome friends who come back to Trivandrum for the holidays, and talk and laugh about old times. Here are some random facts about Inpa for those who do not know her:

Despite her unique name, we have come up with other names for her – like Zinpa(courtesy an official email ID which had her initial prefix her first name) and Inpalu (thanks to a college mate who discovered during our college I.V. to Bangalore that everything in Kannada ends with ‘lu’ so 'Inpa' in Kannada should be 'Inpalu'. The name stuck, we still call her Inpalu :-)).

The rest of us love Vanilla ice-cream, she loves Vanilla-scented shower gel, Vanilla-scented lotions, perfumes, Vanilla scented lipstick, and anything else in the cosmetic section with even a remote trace of a whiff of Vanilla in it :-)

She can talk on and on for hours and never bore you.

She's a good cook - cooks rather tasty and interesting stuff.

She's in fact, lots of fun!!

Inpa's birthday was on Jan 6^th and I made these earrings for her.

Happy Birthday Inpalu!! Stay sweet :-)

I used copper connectors, copper findings and red and black crystals in various sizes for these.

Happy New Year!

Yet another year! Here's a hope that this year will find you and me in the best of spirits, and of health, may it bring us happiness, more reasons for laughter, more beauty in our lives. May it find all our wishes coming true, all our dreams being fulfilled. May it fill our lives with good things, and good people. Happy New Year!!

When I thought of the new year, the color white came to my mind. Because, I guess, white reminds me of happy things - of freshly fallen snow, of pearls, of the scent of jasmine, of brides, of pebbles and sandy beaches. So here's something in white to start the new year with. 

Supplies required (for each earring):

White glass beads - 6

White or colorless seed beads - 7

Beading wire

Ear wire - 1

Eye pins - 2

Take four white beads(WB) and three seed beads(SB). Loop the wire through the beads in the following order: WB,SB,WB,SB,WB,WB,SB. Now loop the wire in again through the first four beads, pull the wire tight, and once securely in place, cut the loose ends off. Loop one end of an eye pin through the space left between the two WBs in the arrangement.Insert a seed bead, a white bead and a seed bead through the eye pin and loop the end. Insert another eye pin through this loop and insert two seed beads and a white bead as earlier. Loop the end of the eye pin through an ear wire. I guess I have made it as confusing as possible, but the picture should help you understand the arrangement of the beads. :-)