My happy-ending

Before I could blog about the fact that how wonderful my Kindle is ....(I don't know why I have a critical battery picture, but u get the drift!)

Today I discovered a tiny crack in it :(

I was terribly sad and upset. I mean its been less than 2 months since I have had it, and have been keeping it very very carefully. It was a birthday gift from Enn, and that made me extra sad.
He got it from Staples, so I was not sure if I was suppose to contact Staples or Amazon to complain about it.
I was prepared to beg-request-argue for a replacement ...so I went ahead and called Amazon, and they said they will replace it. ..... Like that..!!!!!!
I am absolutely amazed and impressed with their service. Hopefully soon enough I will get my new Kindle and all I have to do is put the older in the same box the new one cam in and ship it off. Amazon will also pay for the shipment.

So that was my happy ending story, also at Gloria's blog I read this lovely story of this little dogie that made me feel warm and fuzzy.

Moving on

Today was my final submission for the Drawing class.
The semester is done. I cannot believe its over.
I had a great time and I got to learn so much. If anything, I am definitely more patient than what I started with.
Also I finally know how to draw gesture drawings. Going so loose and crazy definitely put me in pain, but finally I figured it out. Which is a BIG Achievement.
We were required to have a object of personal importance and through out the semester we had to develop a portfolio drawing this object using different techniques.
My object was this mug ,I made in my Pottery class.

I will post later my various takes on this mug. (Pinkie promise :)

So I have been looking at my blog header and have been wondering, "WHAT WAS I THINKING..??"
I mean some of the words don't really make sense any more.

"Trying to hold some log of my whims, creative fits, itches, pleasures, pains, love, family, blessings, shopping, sale, regrets, life"

Probably it seemed like a good idea back than. Oh well...! I guess a change is in order.

So at least for now I will edit it to "Trying to hold some log of my whims."

I am many things and one of it is surely whimsical. I mean look at me, one day I want to be a seamstress, next day a potter, attempts to paint never stop, some days I am a hard core environmentalist, and then I don't blog for 6 months. (Book maker, cook,baker, home maker, quilting etc. etc. ....I will not even go there...)

So - the Log of whims it is.....

Simple paper bow tutorial

I will be a woman of few words and let the tutorial do the talking. Click on the image to view it larger.

Happy Halloween

Today for the first time ever...I carved pumpkins....
I carved a couple of them. It was the part of today's art class. I had so much fun.
Here is a scene from the class the when we entered. Before all the students attacked the pumpkins.
And this is what I made...its unibrowed spongebob :)

Sounds of fall

Don't you luv the rustling sound of the leaves...and these are all around us.
I recorded this while walking to my friends place.

Sorry if this makes u camera sick.

Next to my window sill

A few days back this tablish like structure came as a part of packaging of my printers toner. It really looks like a tiny table, all I did was hot glued the sides and taped it to insure its durability.
Glued some pretty paper.

And here is the final result.

It sits happily and perfectly in front of the window sill and contains some essentials.

The more color the better..!!!!

Picture this

Work in progress...

Chillies from our friends garden...i made a yummy chutney out of it.

Wine cork trivet

After seeing this very fabulous tutorial at Craftynest I had to give it a try. We happen to have an abundance of wine corks, and so far I had been only using them for decor purposes. Like in a vase or something. BUt this made total sense. Cutting a cork it in half, was not very easy, and of course I could not cut them all in equal length. Also this was my first time with a hot glue gun, and I had so much fun using it.,it gets addicting.

This is how it looks on the other side. I absolutely luuv the color variations in these.

Profile pic change

I am changing and still trying to change my profile pic.
I realized I am some years older and many times wiser than my current profile picture, so it should reflect an "updated me" ...
I am kind of blogging about it, b'coz if you see another picture with my name on it, its actually me and not an impostor :)

FREE online Art Course for Everyone!

The fabulous Tam is organizing a free online Art Course..!!!
yup.... its free....
Last year I had taken a course from Tam and she is a wonderfulll teacher.I luv her art and her sense of humor and absolutely luv her compassionate teaching style.
For more details please watch her video.

See you there.

The Incredible Drama

The weekend was very very stressful.
Our beloved cell phone HTC Incredible...no let me rephrase, my husband's beloved cell phone HTC Incredible got a wash in washer...!! (Mine is safe with me)
You see, I had a HEAP of laundry, the HEAP has been accumulating since more than three weeks (that's right, I have a more than three weeks supply of you-know-what!) and I was kind of over whelmed. So I was picking clothes left-right and center and just dumping them in washer, and I am not the one who separates whites, delicates, work clothes or Check Pockets..!!!
The drama started when Enn asked me abut his so n so pair of shorts which had cell-phone in the pocket.And I immediately recalled stuffing them in the washer what followed was me screaming, crying, apologizing, poor Enn did not really got a chance to express his emotions.
Google came in handy, and apparently there are a lot of people out there who wash their phones. So this is what I learned/ we did:

• When phone gets a water wash, DO NOT SWITCH IT ON & Immediately removed the battery,Sim , memory card. 
• A good tool to completely open phone is that tiny screw driver used to tight eye-glasses.Only open parts that you can put back together(You don't want to solve a circuit jigsaw puzzle.

• Since we had completely opened it, we kept it under a lamp for around 12-15 hours. Its also suggested to put it in a bag of rice, but we were afraid that it might get inside the phone.
• After 12-15 of hrs lamp treatment, I wrapped it in kitchen towel and put it in a bag of rice for another 12-15 hrs.

After all this moisture sucking treatments, the screen looked clear,and we were ready to turn it on. I was shaking and nervous. But Enn assembled it and turned on the power button, and the baby said in a lovely-robotic-mechanical voice "Droid..."...OoOohhh it was soooo exciting. I felt a rush a relief.

So far the phone is working alright, but I will not be too excited about it. I am sure there will be some impact on its performance, let's see.
Did I mention the most important lesson - to check pockets before u wash clothes.

Contour drawing

Couple of weeks back the assignment was in Contour Drawing, There was literally a flee market in the middle of the class and we were suppose to pick 10 objects and draw them. They had to be very very simple line drawings and all the objects had to be transparent. We had to use various pencils/pens.

The critique I got was there was no variation in my line, in the sense within a single object the shade and thickness of the line remained same. I guess I will try to improve that.

This was the complete picture, Remembers my comfort with little drawing surfaces, forget about it....now I only work in a 18x24 inches big sketch book....:) and it feels damn good. My teacher said a wonderful thing..."while drawing use your whole body not just your hands."

Blast from the past

Lol, you cannot go any further past...these people come from way back in time. We are studying gesture drawing. My teacher told me "don't be afraid of going outside the line...and loose." I really really had trouble doing this, I mean I was literally in physical pain in going outside the line. Not that I am a perfectionist, but my resistance to go out my comfort zone amazed me. I am going there....it will take time...:) until than I m on the line...

Living my dreame

Yupp that's what I am doing...
For as long as I can remember... I wanted to take a drawing class. A proper art school drawing class...and I am finally getting to do it.
Its crazy ...amazing ...and fantastic.
I say crazy b'coz...I work full time ...then this class...and then I have loads and loads of home work to do....not to mention house/cleaning/cooking/laundry etc.
I luv rushing to the class after so many years of education I had forgotten that feeling. I also like having homework tension, and trying to delay it till last moment and then pulling an almost all niter just to finish my work, and for a change the work I am doing...I am absolutely loving it. I sit in the studio/class room (which by the way is open till mid night...) for hours and hours and just don;t realize it. Time just flies. This is indeed a dream come true for me. My art teacher is fabulous,and the students in the class are really enthusiastic.
I really look forward to this journey and hope to enjoy it to the fullest.

Teary eyed

I am generally not the crying type. In fact I go to great lengths to avoid tears, umm let me put it this way, I am not courageous enough to share my tears.
But these short films from StoryCorps made me cry like a baby, specially the "Danny and Annie"
story.
And then I went ahead on the StoryCorp Website to listen to more stories, and they all are beautiful.
All it take is a heart felt conversation.

:')

Art attack continued

"Extinct is forever"...I picked that line from a t-shirt.  But it totally fits here.

This looks like a Slumber Party... The colors are really bright and dark....something I did not intended. Reminds me of good old days when me and my two best friends would spend nights talking and giggling and dreaming and wondering about the future...who knew it would come so soon...

Almost art attack

This is more of a hint to Enn....   :)

 Is this too early....well after putting the orange and black color scheme it had to be Halloween...

"Never been kissed..."

And yesterday at a local fair, I got me these pretty pretty charms...a spatula and goblet. Its super mini, like a couple of cm's. Luv it I mean what's life without good food and wine :)

Just one ATC

Aqua Girl

She also has a lot subtle glitter in her, in her eyes and in her hair. And with all the blues, it looks like she also has sand in her feet.

Focus

Reusing fancy plastic water bottles

This is boring. No, nothing against the dish washing liquid, but the bottle is boring.

I tried filling dish washing liquid in fancy glass bottles but it wasn't very practical. Hands are slippery during washing dishes and you cannot squeeze it.

And then I made this awesome discovery, that the cap of any regular dish washing liquid bottle fits a regular plastic water bottle. There are ample of fancy plastic water bottles one comes across, how about extending the life of these which is anyway headed towards recycling.

Here's Fiji water bottle.I snipped off the name part filled it with dish washing liquid and replaced the cap.

I don't know what brand but some pretty water bottle, did the same thing. When I get bored all I have to do is change the bottle.

And here's a close up of the caps, and how easily the just fit.

I am sure this is just a temporary thing and does not have a long life, but might just add a little oomph to the rather boring process. Having said, that I luuv washing dishes. (i keep saying that and hope someday it will come true.)

Everybody's Free to Wear Sunscreen!

Here are a few of my favorite lines from this video.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nevermind; you will not
understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded.

You’re not as fat as you imagine.

Do one thing everyday that scares you.

Sing.

Sometimes you're ahead, Sometimes You're behind. The race is long, and in the end, it's only with yourself.

Stretch.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone.

W ever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either – your
choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s.

Enjoy your body, use it every way you can…don’t be afraid of it, or what other people
think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own..

Dance…

Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.

Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for
good.

Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the
people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go,but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.

Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you're 40, it will look 85.

But trust me on the sunscreen…

Materialistic Me

My dreams of being a seamstress have come to a screeching halt...and I guess cheap sewing machine just don't work. Pixie has failed me as well. It just refused to pick bobbin thread, I tried every solution I could find on the web. Apparently a lot of people like me had problems with this sewing machine. I found that on singer's website. So- for the time being- its over.

I returned it, and got myself other goodies.

U see the pretty pretty flowery journal, set of gel pens and tic-tic pencils (i don't know what its called ?)

The journal is really pretty and thick
The pencils are super cute and I luuuv using 0.7mm pencils. The sound they make on paper makes my heart and hand sing. Though these have these annoying foamy grip, which I will get rid of.
And the set of pens is fabulous...!!!!! they are 52 of them!! in a tin case...glittery...colored...neon...all of them...so much inspiration for my penmanship...
I tested all these pens - and what better way than writing a nice wod with each of 'em.
The verdict : all 52 work
And finally some apple green aewsome -ness...

No points for guessing I am a petite female and have to fold my jeans if I don't get a chance to alter it.