Shalini's Sewing Space

Thanks for the wishes! The party went well. We had to move indoors as it was just too hot out. But other than that, everything went as planned. Everyone loved the food, the kids enjoyed a lot, the adults enjoyed too. Mehul's playroom was the main playground for the kids and by the evening it looked like a tornado had gone through! LOL In the evening as the guests started leaving, the neighbor's kids came right back outside and played on the bouncy. I was so happy to see it getting used as well. I have so many pictures to post but no time this week. Mummy papa are leaving on Monday - 15th October. Yes, Already!! We are going to miss them but Mehul will miss them the most. It will be hard on him for a while. He looks for papa first thing in the morning. It doesn't help that he is supposed to be transitioned to the next class (Gard 3) starting tuesday. We're going to talk with the Director tomorrow when we go to drop him and try to delay the transitioning. Normally we woul...

Planning a party For the little one. He's turning 3 in less than 10 days! Actually, there will be a smaller party at the daycare on the day of, and a bigger party at home where close friends and neighbors are invited the following weekend. I made the invitation card for the party last night. That's pretty much the progress as of now. Oh, and we got the bouncy for the kids from a friend. *Now* I'm getting excited about the party. So far, DH and I were planning on making this birthday a quiet one with just the daycare kids to celebrate at a location other than his daycare (something like Yucky Cheese), but then thought that since my parents are here we should do something. It won't be a big celebration like his first birthday (in India), but fun nonetheless. We don't even know that many people here LOL! Now I need to come up with 2 sets of return gifts, order Cake for the party, cupcakes for the daycare, food and drinks for party at home, tables & chairs to put in...

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...

Many thoughts This isn't going to be a coherent entry :) (Like it is ever. Huh) First off, Thanks for the comments on the new look. I can't take credit for the new title "Expression Alley" though. While watching TV and creating the new header, I started thinking along the lines of "Expressing". This blog is all about expressing, afterall. Expressing in written form, or in art in the way of scrapping or stitching. First thought was "Express Lane". Created the header and asked DH what he thinks. He said "Huh? This doesn't make any sense and makes me think of Grocery Store Express Checkout Lane." LOL! I said that this is where I express my thoughts, so it is *my* Express Lane. He said it still makes him think of the checkout lanes. Dumped it. Next thing he said was "Expression Alley". Bingo. My first thought was it's something out of Harry Potter. Diagon Alley, Expression Alley. Love it. I LOVE Harry Potter. So, that was it...

Birthday Photos And finally, some birthday photos. Mehul had 2 parties, one at the daycare, and another one at home a couple of weeks later. The daycare party was on October 4th, his birthday. Sene reminded me about the other party photos, here they are. Daycare Birthday Playing outside with the balloon Favorite Gift - Elmo's Workbench On the 4th, at home. We decorated a cheesecake! On the 22nd, we had the 2 Parties in 1 celebration. And finally, a LO. *Credits added Nov. 06 2006* Credits: Everything from Diamante Designs The Necessaties collection. They are unavailable rightnow, but this collection will be made available again at The Digi Shoppe. I made the scissors from a photoshop brush and Diamante's paper. Cool huh?

Tired The party went very, very well :) Couldn't have been better. Everyone LOVED the food. They said it was like 'Wedding Food' which is the best compliment anyone could get! Everything was done on time, and I even had some time to relax before the guests started arriving. But, somehow we had postponed wrapping up the party favor gifts long enough that there wasn't enough time to do that in the end. That's okay, the kids care less about the packing, and more about the stuff ;) BTW, we decided to get the age appropriate puzzle cards for the kids. I have never received so many compliments on my cooking {blush} I was ecstatic. About 25 people attended, but there was way too much food. My friend M stayed back and helped me clean up afterwards, which was great. We were so busy enjoying the party, we forgot to take pictures! Our regular camera backup friend, N, had to leave early and we didn't think of giving someone else the camera LOL We did get pictures of the cak...

Happy Diwali! Today is Diwali. I usually make a Rangoli and put up the lights outside, but this year I can't. I'm busy preparing for the party tomorrow. Plus, I don't know where the lights are. We'll put them up on Christmas :) We're Online We got the phoneline. Finally! My home is no longer an Internet, Phone Free Retreat! LOL. Party Party prep is in progress. I have done some dishes and will do a couple more more today. Rest will be done tomorrow. The items that are prepared, or bought_and_need_no _prep are in silver. Starters Small Samosa/Chutney Sausage BelPuri Nachos/Salsa Jaljira Dry Fruits Tray Paneer w/ Chalmasala Kids Menu Chowmein Main Course Shahi Paneer Chicken Makhani (Take out) Bhartha Chole Raita w/ Bhalle Tricolor Rice Roti Crunchy Salad Papad Dessert Nemo Cake! Kheer Icecream Drinks Sprite Diet Coke Whiskey White Wine Red Wine Beer Tea

Party Plans We are planning the Birthday and House Warming Party this Sunday. We figured, since it's the same group that would be coming to both, we'd club them together into one party. I did't want people to feel obligated to come to two of our parties and give us two gifts, so now they don't have to :-) We don't know a whole lot of people here, so it's just going to be bunch of our family friends in this party. We do have another group of friends that we do potlucks with, and they would come in another party we'd throw the next month as one of them is going to India this month. Anyhow, the meal. I am preparing everything myself. Yep, I'm crazy enough to do that. We started planning the menu last night. So far, this is what I've got. If you're reading this AND are coming to the party, all I have to say is Bring Your Appetite! Starters Small Samosa/Chutney Sausage BelPuri Nachos/Salsa Jaljira Dry Fruits Tray Paneer w/ Chalmasala Kids Menu Chowmei...

Let's rewind I'm so pooped today. Yesterday, I had to do a lot of running around to get all the things ready for his party. We had gotten most of the stuff beforehand, but had to pick up the balloons (can't do that in advance, right), and the cupcakes. I got off work at lunchtime. The cupcakes were specially prepared for us (by Wegmen's; their staff is so helpful) with Red and Yellow icing. Did I mention the two stores are at the opposite ends from my house? Anyhow, I picked both up and went home to relax a bit and have lunch. Prepared a salad quickly. I was going to eat cake later in the day so didn't have a big lunch. Girish was stuck in a meeting at the last moment, but thankfully it ended right on time. He came home around 2:25. When we reached the daycare, our little angel was fast asleep, along with a lot of other little angels. I took a picture, ofcourse. The kids had already started waking up. I set the table and put the food out. Miss O. had to wake Mehul u...

Elmo Wins! Mehul has decided he loves Elmo best. So, Elmo it is. Some of the items we got are these. Besides these, there were some other party favors like stickers, swirly straw, crazy ball, etc. Each kid will also get an Elmo mylar balloon. Hope they like them!

Curious George, or Elmo? Or, Finding Nemo? These are the themes I'm trying to decide for Mehul's 2nd birthday party. He'll have 2 parties, one at the daycare with Cupcakes and juice boxes, and another at home next weekend (or the weekend after). I'm thinking of doing the daycare party with a theme. Although, I might do both with different themes. Wouldn't be the first time I changed my mind at the last minute. The daycare has strict policy about food, though. They don't allow cake or candles. Only cupcakes, with an ingredients label on it, so I can't make them (I was contemplating that). Now, if we can decide on the theme, we'll get the items tonight or tomorrow night. Friday and Saturday will be *very busy* days. I'm not announcing anything on my blog because it's a surprise for some people. Shhhhh..... Back to the themes - At first, his favorite character was Elmo. Loved Elmo. Still does. I remember we took his singing 'emmo' doll on o...