Shalini's Sewing Space

Tangles in the Floss Don't you hate it when the floss you were working with just fine becomes a tangled mess sometimes. I hate sorting through the tangles. I think of just throwning away the tangles and starting fresh. But with a little perseverance and a little patience, it starts to get untangled. One strand at a time. And then it becomes all straight like it never happened. Life is like that. One day everything is fine and all of a sudden the tangles start forming. At first, the more you sort, the more it seems to get worse. And then you think of leaving the mess and focus elsewhere. But unlike the floss, you can't just throw away your worries or problems and start fresh. You sort through them. One issue at a time. Most of these things don't matter in the long run anyway. It's just a matter of time and sometimes a change in perspective does wonders. If you're wondering what prompted me to write this, it's a bunch of different things and nothing in particular.

Trying Something New.. A new recipe. I tried it yesterday and it turned out yummy. It will appear here after I make a recipe card ;) I figure I have to get started on that recipe booklet, so I'll keep trying new recipes and making cards and sharing them here too. *If you're a scrapper and have any links to recipe kits, please feel free to share* A new style of layout. I have been in a rut. Haven't tried anything new in a while. Once I got comfortable with a style, I adopted it as my style. It works. I can now churn out a layout in less than an hour. But I need to try new things so today I *did*. I'm thoroughly impressed with many scrappers and how cool their seemingly messy style is! Yenny comes to mind, though there are others whose names I don't remember, but I do identify their styles. So this is what I came up with. I sort of did it in the Go layout before, but this is far messier. LOL! Long list of credits here. Any feedback is appreciated :) Sweet Loving You

More Scrapping I did these two pages from Miki's Down By The SeaShores kit. The Yatching pictures are my Good Friend's . Hope she likes them! Yatching Baltimore Trip Credits: Miki Ferkul's Down By The Seashore Papers Beachy Elements for Yatching LO Nautical Elements for Baltimore LO

Awesome We have High Speed at last!! And DH made us wireless again. Cable is back too! Yippie! Grey's Anatomy is on in 1 minute. Life is good :D

Lots of Layouts I haven't posted a lot of the layouts that I'd done last week and before. Since I am distracting myself from the REAL issues, I thought I'd post these today. The post is photo intensive so I've made thumbnails. Click to view. You Make My Heart Melt Credits: From Diamante Designs Life's Little Moments Collection. Background paper ~ Treasure, Paper squares ~ Treasure, Photo Corners ~ Treasure, Ricracs ~ Treasure Ribbon ~ Treasure Brads ~ Tender Thoughts Also used Diamante Designs- Glass Flowers Vol 2 Paint Stroke ~ Necessities Collection Paint It Circle Stitching ~ Let Yourself Shine Fonts are Hurricane, Stamped DSG, and Scriptina Sweet Love Credits: Layout inspired by one of Gina's. From Diamante Designs Life's Little Moments Collection. Background Paper ~ Tender Thoughts Photo Mat Paper ~ Tender Thoughts Ribbon Loops ~ Tender Thoughts Ribbon ~ Tender Thoughts Twisty Tie ~ Tender Thoughts Felt Flowers ~ Tender Thoughts Paper Tag ~ Tender Thoug

Terrible Twos I was lucky to skip Stretch Marks, luckily I skipped most of Morning Sickness, I also skipped the Heartburn. But not lucky enough to skip the Terrible Twos. They have hit us with full force. Temper Tantrums at the drop of a hat. You look at him wrong and there he goes. Complete with rolling on the floor and banging his hands and feet. Try to get him wear his Jacket or Shoes when he doesn't want to. This is especially fun if you're getting late for work. Meal times are even more fun now. He learned saying 'No' a long time ago and doesn't say 'Yes' still. Does that tell you something? LOL! Last night we stopped by the mall to pick up something. He wanted to ride the escalator. DH happily obliged. When they reached downstairs Mehul spotted the train. It's a ride-on train that just circles around the lobby and in one wing of the mall. Well, the rides are only on the weekends, but who could explain him that? Tantrum ensued right there in the lob

I got my wish.. It did snow, though not much. Only a couple of inches. I did take some pictures this morning but didn't have time to download them from the camera. I'll probably do a LO with them soon. Nothing exciting going on. There was a lot of bad eating and not exercising over the weekend. Hope to go for a run today and to get eating back on track. I made a few dishes with Spinach over the weekend. Still have so much of it left over (had bought a bag from Costco), I'm out of ideas! Maybe I'll just chop it up and freeze it. Mehul loves the curry that I make with pureed Spinach. He is doing better. He's eating fine now but not completely out of the woods yet. His weight was the same as the 2 year appointment. He must have lost some because he must have gained some in the last 3 months. All the clothes were getting tighter (and shorter. I swear he grew longer overnight). The doctor said his weight is always so precious. LOL! So true. His first year graph looks so

I Miss Snow We haven't seen a single snowflake this season. They keep saying it'll happen, but it doesn't. How depressing. I love snow. I don't love *driving* in snow but if it's bad, we generally get a snowday. Snowdays are fun. Take pictures, Shovel, and then have HOT Tea. With freshly baked Muffins. Yummm. They're saying we'll get wintery mix tonight, but that's differet. I love a good foot of snow. Sigh. So, I am scrapping my old snow pictures. Here is one cool photo. All That Glitters Is Snow Credits: Everything from ScrapArtist. Papers: NRJ Gold and Silver Paperset Decorative Edge: MCO Decorative Edges Frame: NRJ Frosty Flourishes Frames Tags: NRJ Painted Tags Freebie Buckle: MCO Written In The Stars String of Beads: MCO Chelsey's Dream

Back from the doctors It's more likely to be a stomach virus and it can take up to 2 weeks to completely go away. It's probably the milk that's upsetting his tummy so much. Milk proteins are difficult to digest when you have a virus apparantly. We've switched him to Soy Milk (recommended by the doctor), and thank goodness he likes the taste. He's really resisting food now. He had a banana right after coming back home, wouldn't eat anything for dinner. Had Apple Juice and Soy Milk. He's sleeping now... I'm overwhelmed reading this article Indian Americans and the Killer Belly . I was dead shocked when I learned I had Gestational Diabetes with Mehul. I'm not thin or fat, somewhere in the middle. The article says that on an average, Indians get Diabetes and Heart Disease even when they are 30 pounds lighter and 10 years younger than their American counterparts. I never saw it written down before, but it's no surprise. A good friend of mine was diagn

Still sick! I've made a pediatrician appointment. Can't be a virus he's ok one day and sick another. Maybe it's something in his diet. He was perfectly fine yesterday and day before but had diarrhea this morning. Milk might be the culprit. TGIF. It has not been a good week. In more than one way.

Stomach Virus Yes, it was a stomach virus. He had a round of diarrhea in the evening and threw up his dinner at night. I was so hoping it was over when he didn't do anything till evening. But he seemed to handle it better this time. Ate and drank normally during the day. I gave him wheat toast in the morning, rice (light khichdi) in the afternoon, and a roti with yogurt in the evening. Water throughout the day. I was going to get pedialyte but since he didn't have anything throughout the day, I thought he was fine. Oh well, he wasn't dehydrated or anything and played all day. Still we had him at home yesterday too, just in case. Thanks for asking!

Home again Mehul is sick. He had pretty bad diarrhoea this morning as we were eating breakfast. He said he had to go potty, and started walking like Frankenstein. We thought it was funny until we checked him. Not funny anymore :( I had to give him a bath again. He and I are staying home. I don't know if it was something he ate or a stomach virus. Hope it's not the latter. No more scrapping done yesterday, but since I was bored, I decided to learn something new. I learned how to make a blinkie. They're hideous IMO! But, it'll improve with time. I had made a haircut appointment for this evening, and hope DH will be back before 6:00 today. Also hope that I don't forget. LOL! So, I'm writing it here.

Made myself a promise.. ..to get myself a reward for reaching my initial goal weight. I am 5 lb away from that. If I reach it and stay at it, I can get my ears pierced again. A second piercing, above the existing ones in the lobes. I decided this while driving to work today. We shall see. The trick is to stay at the weight for atleast one month. I came as close as 1 lb to that goal weight early last year, and then slipped far. Hopefully, this (and the running) will keep me from slipping. This is a second post from me today. Yes, I'm bored at home. DH said he'll get Mehul today. The long run gives me a headache. Did it last time too. I can't figure it out. Making some tea now.

And it continues... The absentmindedness continues. Today is a holiday at my company, and I showed up for work :rolleyes. None of my previous employers had MLK Day as a holiday, and generally only the Government Employees get it. I did't bother to check. Imagine my surprise to see a nearly empty parking lot. I did get to the gym at work, and did my 5K. Again. Yay for me! But I still feel stupid. Moving on, I just finished this 2006 Review layout. I LOVE the colors here. So pretty! Year 2006 Credits: Layout Design is Lifted from Erin's Year in Review Yellow Background: Meredith Fenwick Faraway Green Background: Meredith Fenwick Faraway Red Cutout Paper: Michelle Coleman Writter In The Stars Circle Stitchig: Diamante Designs Let Yourself Shine Butterfly: Diamante Designs Let Yourself Shine Flowers: Michelle Coleman Flowers For Mom Buttons: Michelle Coleman Savoir Faire Twisty Tie: Diamante Designs Let Yourself Shine 2006 Alpha: Diamante Designs Felt Alpha Photo Strips: Michelle C

Sunday Meme Stolen from Erin's Blog . "List 10 things that are making me happy right now, right this second..." 1. A Very Clean Kitchen. Just for today, you can eat off my kitchen floor! 2. Food in the freezer for the week ahead. 3. The idea that I'm becoming a runner. A long time dream. 4. The thought of starting swim classes very soon. Scared and happy at the same time! 5. The swimsuit I have selected. Please be available in the color I want and my size! 6. The new dessert recipe I got from Erin . Actually, this knocks off an item from my 101 things list - To learn a new western style dessert. 7. The beautiful weather around here. Where's winter? 8. My beautiful bedroom . I sorta feel like royalty sleeping in there :-) 9. My Dream Designer has offered me a Guest CT spot for March!!!You'll have to wait to find out! I'm ecstatic about this. 10. Grey's Anatomy is back!!!

Losing my mind Something is up. I am being more absentminded than usual. Day before yesterday, I didn't notice my boss had sent me a meeting invite. I didn't notice it because the way I've set up my inbox, his mails go into his folder, and it wasn't expanded. It doesn't show new mails in the main inbox folder. I keep checking my mail throughout the day. Didn't expand, didn't notice. Thank goodness, I was in on time and was able to attend it. It was an all day event, started at 9:30, ended at 5:30. Gahhhh! Also, day before yesterday, I show up at the daycare to pick up M. We have to enter our password and check him in/out for the door to open. When I tried to check him out, it errored out, saying that he's already checked out. I just didn't read what it said, and since there were people behind me, I decided to checkout on my way out. The door was opened by someone and I entered. His teacher Jessy was going to use the bathroom and she saw me and said s

What day is it today? Today is the day when Shalini completes a 5K! Yeppers! I ran my usual 2 miles, and then decided to walk the rest of the distance. 5 minutes in, and I was ready to run again! And I did, right to the end of 3.1 miles. Jenni gave me some tips to go longer, and now I can! The key is to go slow. I took 41 minutes, though. This isn't ideal. Most athletes would do it in under 30 minutes. Once I get used to running this distance, I'll improve my mileage. But today, I'm happy! Thank you, Jenni! Jenni and I are going to run a 5K race in April. We live close to each other. She has already done (atleast) one, and asked if I was up to it. Sure am! The race is Stupid Little 5K I just looked at the course photos, and boy, it has quite a few up-hills. But the view is beautiful.

Slacker! Not you, Me! I have been a slacker at fulfilling my obligations! Did I mail out the ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) for December? Nope. Have I finished the gift project? Nope. Did I do my Creative Team duties? Nope. So, what have I done? Let's see, I got a whole bunch of work stuff done on time, including the preparation for the demo. Yeah yeah, what else? Certifications. Okay, I already talked about those twice! No more mention is needed. What I haven't mentioned here is that I finished Mehul's First Birthday layouts. All 34 of them! Now only to get them printed and put in a scrapbook. I don't have trouble doing the layouts, it's the printing that kills me. See, for printing stuff on time, I have to be more organized than I tend to be. I have to plan ahead. I get my prints done at Costco, which is near Mehul's daycare, where I go *daily*. Then, what's the problem? Well, some days I forget. Other days when I remember, I do not have my Memory stick with

Really Nice Day, But What Does It Mean? Yesterday was such a nice day here in D.C. We had recordbreaking high temperature. 73F!! Apparantly, the headline in Delhi newspapers was, 22C in Wahington DC, and 4C in Delhi in January! What's going on? We (along with the rest of DC, VA, MD residents) made the most of it. We decided to take Mehul to a petting zoo near our place. We have never been, and (I) got really excited at the sight of Ostrich, Lamas, and many more animals. Got to the gate, and realized it was closed for the season! I can't blame them. It's not usual for people to want to visit the petting zoo in the midde of winter! As we were leaving, we saw atleast 3 cars stop by! Really a bummer. But it's really only 15 minutes from our home, so it's no big deal. We'll certainly go back. So, we decided to go to Great Falls State Park. The Potamic river runs through the middle of it, and forms a sort of waterfall. We just love going there. Saw some people were ha

Looking forward to 2007 In 2007, I wish to focus on growth. Both personal and professional. Professional I have just cleared the certifications that bring me one step closer to where I want to be professionally. For anyone wondering, they are FileNet Enterprise Content Management and Business Process Management Java APIs (Mouthful). I want to be a Content Specialist when I grow up :) I am learning Filenet, and have experience with Documentum (FileNet's Competition, and a leading Enterprise Content Mgmt solution). A resume with both of these is really hard to find. Now, I need to get on a project with FileNet here, and I'm all set. Personal The fun part. I want to be a runner. I want to finish a 5K. I run at lunchtime sometimes, but I need to be more consistant. Currently, I can run 2 miles (3.2K) in 25 minutes, With a total of 5 minutes walking before, in-between, and cool-down. So, I'm joining the 100 miles by April 1st . Found it on ThermalGal's Blog The challenge

2006 in Review There were many ups and downs along the way, but overall, it was a good year. Better than 2005 for sure. No one got majorly sick, for which I'm very thankful. I got to spend the first half of the year with Mehul, staying happily at home. That is the highlight of this year in my mind. I didn't know how much I had missed seeing him the last year! In June, I got a good job that pays slightly less than last years contract, but is much closer to home. I'll take that over salary any day. Girish switched his project within his company and came closer to home too. Both of us are home at a reasonable time daily, and have time for family activities (even if it's just sitting in front of TV most days! LOL.) In September, we bought the house of our dreams. Couldn't sell the old place, but it's still working out. Girish turned 31, I turned 30, and Mehul turned 2. We formed new friendships, and continued old ones. Both online, and in real life. I made contacts

Happy New Year - 2007 Sorry for remaining absent for the entire week! A lot has been accomplished in that one week! I am preparing for a demo on the 8th, and I'm very busy with that. With the holidays, it was very difficult to hunt people down. The demo is coming along, it's but not there yet. I also managed to pass 2 certification exams for work. One with 100% and another with 95% score. Yay! I had a cookathon over this weekend. There is very little space left in the freezer. Lots of soup, soup stock, curries, beans, and pilaf! M & M came over on New Year eve. Lots of eating was done. I was officially responsible for blowing their diets the last day of the year. LOL. Thanks for the comments on my MBR entry. We bought the mirror at BB&B, it was too close to the paint color so returned it, promptly found another one. All is well. Almost. DH is concerned that the mirror is too heavy for the drywall to support. He has to find the studs in the wall. Here's hoping there