Shalini's Sewing Space

The MBR Project Before we moved our furniture in the room (September). I forgot to take a photo with the furniture! This is the Bedroom view from the Sitting Room. Sitting Room Before BR and Sitting Room After With Flash This one's Without Flash Nightstand. You can't see the phone clearly, but it's really pretty. I got it last year when I did the Library in the other house. But, it goes with this furniture more so it'll stay here. The Bedding I still need some things, like, curtains (on my next trip to India), The Perfect Paintings (as I find them), a Full Length Mirror (already selected it at Bed Bath and Beyond, just have to get it). Also, my Angel of Love will go in this room. So, majority of work in this room is done. I will keep decorating it little by little :) Oh, almost forgot! I will replace that ugly chair (or, DH's favorite rocker) in the Sitting room with a beautiful Chaise once I find it. No need to hurry, though :) And now, to think of the next project...

Merry Christmas (Belated) So, did you have a good Christmas Weekend? Mine was really nice. As I mentioned in my last post, we had a Parent Teacher Conference on Friday. Got some not so good news along with the good news. I will post it separately, but it involves Mehul's teacher mentioning that he might have to work with a Speech Therapist in a couple of months. We spent Friday evening finishing up the paint (or so we thought!) Had to do a third coat on 2 of the walls as some streaks were visible. This project has been stretched longer that it should have. We underestimated the amount of supplies needed, having never painted a room this size (technically, it's 2 rooms) ! It took 4 gallons of paint, 3 rolls of tape, and a lot of hours! The result is absolutely beautiful! Pictures coming in the next post. We decided to go out for the Christmas Party! LOL. I guess everyone needs a break. It worked out for the best. We all hung out around our house from afternoon. Had tea and snack...

Birthday Layouts so far.. Here they are, somewhat in order. DH, Me, MIL, FIL, and Mehul around the cake table. Notice the cake is missing! It arrived after us. Phew! Here it is! *My* favorite Tweetie :) Birthday Boy With Us With my parents - his Nanu and Nani With my elder Sister Anshu and BIL Rishi With my SIL Shalu and BIL Anurag With my little sister Cheena That's all I have done so far. I will add more LOs to this post and keep a link in my sidebar for easy access (because I would be looking at these again and again LOL). And now, you're up to speed with most of my side of the family, and DH's family. My brother is missing from these, and so is my niece Arushi -- Anshu's daughter. They are coming soon. As you can tell, Mehul was passed around a lot! LOL. Everyone wanted a picture with him. Thank goodness he cooperated pretty well! Many of the extended family members were seeing him for the very first time. Consolidated Credits: Following are by ztampf: Artia Papers,...

Overbooking our weekends That's what we do a lot. And we shouldn't. Take this weekend, for example. Saturday night, we are either going to the Christmas Party at a friends place, or hosting it. We'll finalize that with them soon. If we do host it, there goes my relaxation plan for Friday. I have taken Friday off after a long time. There is a parent-teacher Conference at the daycare on Friday, too. Yes, they do this. And I want to formally talk about his progress, not just 5 minutes here or there while picking him up. So far, Friday morning and Saturday night are busy. If we host, all the time inbetween goes in cooking and cleaning. Sunday, DH's colleague is having a Birthday party for his son. Do we really have to go? We have been thinking of calling them to our place as Girish and the guy have become good friends. G thinks we should go. I dunno. If we go, there goes Sunday afternoon. Morning and evening we'll be placing calls back home, which I don't mind at al...

Birthday Scrapbook Some of you might know that we celebrated Mehul's First Birthday back in India. It was done in a semi-big way. That's the way 1st birthdays are done there, generally. All cousins, etc. were invited, and there was a DJ (Dance Jockey) with a dance floor. It was fun! We also had a photographer and videographer to tape the function. It's much cheaper than here, so most people are able to do this. Plus, we generally do a get-together to meet everyone anyway, because we go back every 2 years. I kept looking at the photos and thinking of cool ways to scrap them. Hadn't come up with a plan. Until Monday night. I started with one photo of my sister and BIL with Mehul. Her Sari color inspired me to look in my Ztampf folder. Lots of common colors there, and the rich papers are going to be perfect for this scrapbook. I've done 5(!) Layouts since then. Unfortunately, I don't have them with me rightnow. Last night, we went to Kohl's to pick up a train ...

Weekend Layouts Sunshine and Flowers Credits: Diamante Designs kit 'Let Yourself Shine' available at TDS here Diamante Designs Paper Petals available at TDS. Jason Gaylor brushes Gina Miller's Fun with Fibers pack Mehul Boy Credits: Brown Paper from Perfect Time of Day by Meredith Fenwick Aqua paper, Note paper, Glittery Florish from Holiday Punch by Meredith Fenwick String Knot from her Strung Out Pack M alpha from Firelight by Meredith Fenwick Tape Arrow from Shakespeare's Canvas kit by Marcie Reckinger at ACOT I made the BOY alpha. So proud. I used one of Meredith Fenwick's paper, typed in using Stencil font, cut it out, and applied Bevel setting. Looks cool.

Quick post I have a meeting in 5 minutes. Just a few quick things - The party at work went well. Mehul was really cooperative (except when he was caught mid-picking_his_nose while I was introducing him to someone. LOL.) Painting is well underway. My arms are very sore. Still need to do the last coat in MBR. Erin, I got your gift!! How very sweet. The Elmo book was a hit! Did 2 Layouts and the December ATC's this weekend. Will share the LOs a little later!

Christmas Party tonight At work. My coworkers that I associate with are coming alone or with kids, no hubbies, so DH is not coming either. The party is AT office, after work. I don't really feel like going, but will go for an hour or so. I'm going to get Mehul from the daycare, and change his dress here. I hope he isn't cranky. Coming straight from the daycare, you just never know! I haven't scrapped or stitched in days. It doesn't feel right LOL. There's a lot going on at work and at home. I'm getting home later than usual, and then there's a lot of stuff to do at home. We're cleaning out the garage and putting stuff in the basement. We haven't started painting the MBR, but we're almost finished taping it. Yesterday was Grey's Anatomy night, so I had to watch. This is the one show I LOVE so I don't mind the re-runs. I have also started watching Ugly Betty. I like that they aren't showing Betty secretly in love with her boss (what...

Not a total bust, but could have been. Mehul's show, that is. It started out great. I reached the daycare 30 minutes before the show was supposed to start. There was no parking available at the daycare. Many parents were already there, which was a surprise since it was a working day. Anyhow, I had to park on the street. When I reached inside, there was a line to get inside the hall where the show was to take place. It is actually the little one's gym and they usually have mats, etc. there. They had made a stage and decorated in a winter theme. Yesterday, only Gard 2 was going to perform. They have 4 sections within Gard 2 and each section was going to do an individual performance, and then later, a group song (Macarana remix) with all the kids together. Mehul was in the second section. When the first section kids arrived, they were all happy and unaware of the fact that their parents were sitting there. Once they reached the stage, some kids froze, others saw their parents in t...

Cool things Meme As seen on Melissa's and Karin's blogs. Post in your blog, bold the things you've done. As you can tell, I'm very low on the cool kid scale. LOL! 01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink. 02. Swam with wild dolphins 03. Climbed a mountain? Many times to visit a Shrine at the top of the mountain. 04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive 05. Been inside the Great Pyramid 06. Held a tarantula 07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone 08. Said “I love you” and meant it love 09. Hugged a tree 10. Bungee jumped 11. Visited Paris - Not really, but I've been at Paris airport. I'm sure that doesn't count. 12. Watched a lightning storm at sea 13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise 14. Seen the Northern Lights 15. Gone to a huge sports game. 16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa 17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables 18. Touched an iceberg 19. Slept under the stars 20. Changed a baby’s diaper 21. Taken a trip in a hot air ...

Paint, paint, paint... Paint: Check Tape: Check Rollers: Check Tarp: Nope As you can probably tell, we are getting ready for painting. First paint job in this house. Wish us luck. The first time we painted at the other house, we managed to spill some paint on the carpet. We have this huge canvas that we use to cover the carpet while painting, but some paint has always managed to get through. We have to get a plastic tarp to put underneath it. We have a Tray ceiling in the room, that's turning out to be a challenge. If you're not familiar with what this is, it looks like an inverted tray. The center part is recessed and there is crown molding on the edges. There are 4 recessed lights in that portion too. We want to do some decorative treatment in the center portion. That's still not final, so we'll start with painting the walls. The nightstands have been ordered (1 for MBR, another for Guest BR). I also got some table lamps and other things. Can't wait to get started...

Weekend Plans Tomorrow morning some friends are dropping by to look at the available plots in our community. They can't get over the fact that how big the house is, specially the kitchen/Family Room area. They have only been looking for 1 month and after seeing our house, they are practically ready to move in. LOL! We are going to get some furniture this weekend. We bought most of our furniture when we moved to our first house. Everything is still pretty new, and we got nice things that would last a while. We have to get some barstools and a nightstand. This is our Master Bedroom collection. The photo is from the store's website, not our room. It shows all the things we got - Queen Bed, NightStand, Dresser & Mirror, TV Armoire. However, we only got 1 nightstand because that's all that would fit in the MBR at the time. Now, we have a bigger MBR and a sitting room attached to it. We've moved the Armoire into the sitting room. So, we're getting the other nightstand...

His First Show.. Mehul is participating in his first show ever! Actually, everyone in the class is. They are preparing for the Winter Show. It will be held on December 13th at the daycare. And, guess what all the 2 year olds are doing? Hey Macarana! Can you imagine how fun it will be. The other night M was doing some 'steps'. He was waving his hands and marching in place. We thought he was just marching (he does marching while saying 'March, March') This looked different, but we assumed it was a new kind of marching LOL. Little did we know this is the dance routine. The teacher told me yesterday about this, and said that he *loves* it, and does it pretty well with the music. He may not do it on the show itself, specially if he sees us, so I'm thinking of dropping in with the camera during their practice time. I have been stitching a lot lately, and when that happens, scrapping takes a back seat for a few days. I did manage to do finish this layout yesterday featurin...

On a lighter note, If you are asked what you want for your Birthday, what do you suggest they give you? Dresses? Jewelery? Books or CDs? Cash, maybe. I get cash. For buying stash. That is what makes me happy. It used to be cross-stitching stash, but now it is digi-scrapping supplies. I am not increasing the amount of stitching stuff I have, mainly because I had doubts over my 2 year hiatus if I'd even get back to stitching or should I just sell everything I own and have someone finish my WIPs. Yes, I thought about it, but I wasn't sure if I was at that point yet. So, I am doing the wise thing and not spending more on that hobby. Atleast not until I can be sure. I am enjoying stitching for now, but since I was at that point very recently, I have decided to not buy things I wouldn't immediately use. So, the scrapping supplies you saw in the post a couple of days ago were mostly (if not all) from Birthday money. And there is a lot more. Can you handle another such post? :grin...

It is *so* good, you have to watch it! That is what I was told repeatedly by friends. To watch Lage Raho Munna Bhai . This isn't going to make much sense to those who aren't Hindi movie watchers, but I have a lot to vent, to say the least. So, on Thursday, DH rented and brought home the DVD of "Lage Raho Munna Bhai" (LRMB). It is the second in the sequel "Munna Bhai M.B.B.S." (MBMBBS). Both are comedies with a good message. I thought I had seen this movie, but when I started watching the second one, I realized I never completed watching the first one! And here's why. I can not stand the main actor, Sanjay Dutt. Now, it's not just that I don't like the way he looks or talks, I have been able to watch movies with actors I don't like. This is way more than that. This is hatred. Yes, I know it's a strong word. But believe me, when I see this man, I see a terrorist in him. Yes. He is a terrorist, and has finally been convicted of being an ...

Tired Party is in 4 hours. I want to take a nap. That's saying a lot since I'm not a nap person. I don't nap, I sleep. Everything is done, except the last minute things like making the rice pulao, placing snacks in the oven to reheat, adding dressing to the salads, heating naan, etc. I have made 2 salads, Burnt Corn Salad, and Potato Chickpeas Salad. Latter would be served along with snacks for a healthy alternative. Oh, and a lot of cleaning is left. DH has gone out to get my Taco Bell fix so that I can get going again. LOL. He had cleaned the upstairs this morning, now we'll do the downstairs after lunch. I did one LO yesterday. I had asked Carrie on the stitching BB for using the awesome Seahorse picture she had shown us, for a LO. I really love looking at this picture. Just had to scrap it. She was so sweet to give me permission to use it :) Thanks, Carrie. Credits: Photograph: Carrie Background paper: Michelle Coleman's Chelsey's Dream Striped paper: Michel...