What goes around..comes around !

Spread a smile. You never know...one day, it will come back to you, to make you smile..when you are feeling low.

 

KARMA !!, I believe in you...

 

After taking around 20 mins "+1"(hour, to be specific) than the normal 20 mins drive to reach my office from home..the new driver in me had a hell of a time, and few other nick nacks..like sick kid back home..new housemaid...he locking himself at home while the maid goes downstairs to drop our 3rd son to the schoolbus...phone not being answered.... just got to my desk feeling crap and telling myself..."wow!! indeed a classic start a new work week !"

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"....I had read somewhere that it is a bit of a task to make someone laugh or atleast smile. You do that everytime through your post with such an ease. Always look forward for your funny aspects to everyday things. Good job girl!!!"

 

  ..................................

 

That was a portion from a comment that I received on one of my posts on Quick Picks and it was dated few days back, but, was it just coincidence that this was the first thing that caught my eye, when I opened up my inbox ? I had missed this comment,and saw it only now.

 

Shibi....thanks very very much for that. You have no clue, but...you just made my day ! Am happy that I could bring in a smile to your face and today, you have just paid me back with interest, when I was definitely lacking those. Thanks a bunch, sweetheart !

 

 

Today is way past June 15th, but yet...please make yourself at ease...push off all that disturbances for a while to the backburner....feel free to take one of those...

 

 

 It is, for FREE...and the offer never expires !

 



 

Thanks Lord ! If , in the above scenario..You make me consider myself blessed, to be an artist and not sick....to date. Amen.

 

And, I am no joker...I am just blessed. I'll keep it that way.

 Think we definitely need some stickeys like this around. Very inspirational.

 

Too many things about smiles and laughter..so, as a closing note...i'll keep that frowny lad for now to say..catch you later.

 

Have a great day ahead !!



 

The Sound of Music...sooths....

Saturday                                                                                                    14th Sept 2103
                                                                                                                   

My laptop clock time reads 13:51 noon.

 

"Doe..a deer...a femal deer.".. the TV to my back is singing. (love that movie !!!)

 

It's lunch time ongoing...very much ongoing...and my smallest can take ages to get his tiny portion of food move down from his mouth to his even slimmer tummy. Feeding the younger ones with my right..the left hand didn't have much to do...so, decided to be writing something down.

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You wind up a Friday with so many plans to do the next day, and top n line was to take the boys out to the park or nearby beach to be trying out the various settings of my new DSLR in bright daylight. That was for the plan for last saturday..and today as well....but...damn...all hopes in the drain...

 

My maid doesn't turn up...AGAIN !!!

well..she's being doing this for quite some time now....scooting jog on Saturday, when am having a day off. And, its the very day that I have so much to do at home...some major cooking, grinding batter for dosa/appam...whatever, for breakfasts the next days...in between the homework, regular sunday tests for our elder.... and this scenario made me really crap.

 

I was to pick Shayne back from his Maths Abacus class, so without the maid, had to grab the little ones too along with me. Missed the road to his classes, missed the second road too..and ended up going round the entire area getting back to track.

What a great start for a new day !

 

Wondered, if the badness of Friday, the 13th just reached Middle-East, a day late. Saturday, the 14th.....Humm.

On a positive note, the boys got an early morning ride straight from bed, in their sleep wear...teeths not brushed.hair not done.....either !

(think positively...think positiveeellyyy...that's all you can say to yourself anyways)

Back home..and beign  a SAHM for about 3 years, i knew exactly well how my day was gonna be.

Prepare breakfast, feeding..cleaning..by then, it would be time to think abt lunch.

Prepare lunch, feeding, cleaning...

Kids nap time, and other miscellaneous .... browsing, facebook, blog...goes somewhere in between

Prepare dinner, feeding, cleaning.

And not to forget the laundry pile. I dont do laundry on fridays..so its 2 piles for saturday to wash, and the leftover pile from thursday to fold. I hate "this" part of the clothes, the most.

But...somewhere..things just didnt turn that bad as I thought. "Good ! I liked it !!!"

Listening to the "Pista song" from the moview NERAM while giving breakfast, was just like taking a full dose of an extra-active energizer drink.

 

 

It's soo full of energy...you are up .....

 

 

and ready to be ..on the go !!!!

 

A very good movie, from the perspective that its the directorial debut of Mr. Alphonse Putharen along with his friends whom he used to meet at a coffee shop in Aluva, Kerala...all with a passion and a dream to make a movie...some day !

 

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Alright ! get back to work ! ..its 11:00 am already.."What's For Lunch, Mommie"..would be the next question in about 2 hrs time. ooh..well.... :/

 

The rest of the day was just music..some soft, some bold, some nostalgic ..playing from my laptop on top of the kitchen counter, that I ended up making "fish-biriyani" for lunch !

 

Literally ended up listening to all the songs featured on Music Mojo - Kappa TV. 

 

One which particularly caught attention was the title name - Maula Mere Maula/Pink Floyd mix, and i was like...Oh my God ! This would be like combining vanilla milk shake with some kerala style spicy salmon-fry".

 

 

Hindi music fans knows where"maula mere maula" stands - its way up there ! one of the best songs ever.

And Pink Floyd - for english rockers and psychedelic musci lovers..this group is way up there as well !

 

And combining these two...? very bold  indeed!

But, reading the full title...i went.."aah! so, its him. In that case, I am definitely not surprised. It was by "Bennet and the Band".  In here, the transition between the two songs is so so soo smooth, just with the single note of a flute, that i literally had to go back to listen it once again.."when in the world did the lyrics change" ?

 

Have seen him once, perform live, and indeed was really amazed by the way he blends in extreme lines. After all..the Law says.."Unlike charges attract each other". His music blends keeps proving that.

 

 

 

Thats a  picture i have of one of his performances here, live, with Naresh Iyer and Shweta Mohan and one of his bit was such a lovely blend of the old sound track for Titan watches with a hit-tamil number by illayaraja - Ada veetukku veetukku vaasappadi venoo..". It was excellent.

 

Some others which I ended up listening over and over...

 

 

"Ee solomonum...shoshannayum.." brings in that feel of the olden time tradional Christian household. Very solemn a song.

 

 

Iktara cover (wake up Sid)

...and so on....

 

 Music Mojo does features some lovely collection, and got to admit, within no time, my Biriyani was ready...kitchen was cleaned..and...

...my graph plot of "crabbiness" vs "time" went down ..just like this.

 

 

 

311 - The Beauty & The Beast

 

Day # Beautiful # Waters # Calm # World # Happy # 311

 

 

 Day # Beastly # Waters # Scary # World # Terrified # 311

 

Look across # Serene # 311

 

Look across # Fearful # 311

 

 

Son # Alone # Water # Merry # 311

 

 

Son # Alone # Water # Despair # 311

 

Trailing behind # Mind # Relaxed # 311

 

  Trailing behing # Mind # Turmoil # 311

 

Mom # Baby # Secure # Happy # 311

 

 

 

Mom # Baby # Insecure # Thankful Just to be Alive # 311 

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I hope you could co-relate. It is definitely a disturbing post, and i was just being selective in not keeping even more disturbing pictures of this incident in here.

 

The two phases of the world...the same day......same time....just across the globe.

Friday, 311 - March 2011 - was a beautiful day here. Sky was blue...few cottony clouds around...weather was perfect that you had to be out to enjoy it to the full...the sea was soo calm.

Mother Nature was being really pleasant and sweet.

 

But right across, straight across the globe..she was putting on that most wicked mask. Unleasing terror all around.

 

She could be soo calm and soo violent at the very same time.

 

 

 She could just be ME, YOU..and honestly, that look on her face, just makes me wonder.."are you prepared for the unexpected, God forbid something bad happens.? Manmade...natural disasters ..are way too common in the papers these days, that they dont move you any more, unless you yourself gets affected by it. Personally, ME..am not at all prepared for anything bad..and I would go blank. Unable to respond.

 

Mamma Earth....pleeassee...dont do this to us . Their pray ?
....
........
.....

That was of the second episode of Tsunami that we came to witness.

The first, Dec 26th 2004, was even more scary, for me. Coz..he was there..right in the middle of it, in Maldives..when it hit, and me, a 5 month preggie lady back home in India !

 

 

you will have no clue what i went through....

 

...to be continued.

 

Simple-Do Yourself-Kids Room-Concepts

 

 

Well..let me take a forehand bail before I go into this post.

 

"Your kids spot you doing these in their room - the hand drawings...and that in turn is a guarentee for them to start attacking the walls themselves with colour pencils and paints. So, if having small kids at home, do this when they are asleep, or get your husband to take them out to the playground before you get yourself busy to surprise them with a room makeover. Ideal as a birthday gift".

 

 

Am sharing two simple kids-room make over designs here.

 

The room door.
 

I did this as a birthday surprise for our eldest son on turning 3...(5 years back, that is).

 

Printed those letter templates from the HP Activity Room site. A very nice space woth spending some time looking around with lots of free and paid templates. The tag "BABY" had holes punched on it and satin ribbon passed through to hang it onto the sticker hooks.

 

Went for a simple concept easily digestable for a 3 year old.

Animals, Todd house, baloons...

 

 

Brought these animal stickers from the 100 fills shop.

The baloons were cliparts which i printed directly onto plain sticker paper . Cut and glued onto the walls.

The grass, flowers, trees and clouds were drawn using oil pastels.

 

 (and this is why, I warned you right at start..not to be doing this in front of kids. Coz, once they spot you, then there is no turning back. They too will start attacking all the walls with crayons, pencils, pastels, lipstick, eyeliners....coz,if  their mom can draw on the walls...then why in the world are they being held back ??? You wont have an answer to that. )

 

As a base border to the paintings, stuck a floral pattered sticker sheet roll all along, which matched the curtain colour. I also drew the flowers (amongst the animals) similar to the ones on the sticker sheet.

 

A corner of the room was set as the "Toy Corner". So, printed some smiley clip art faces onto sticker sheets, cut and glued it around that area.

The floral sticker border continues to the other wall too as well. With him being in playschool at that time and just into the basics of ABCD, 123.....decided to have the numeral series in a train concept. I do most of the art layouts in MS Powerpoint. In the insert clipart option, inserted a train boggie image and typed the numbers 1, 2, 3 on each.

Two boggies together, were sized to A3, and printed on plain A3 paper.

The boggie images were then cut to shaped and stuck together one after the other on the walls with fevicol.

The smoke from the train was again with back and grey oil pastel.

For the family touch, there were 3 pictures .. one of him while he was a baby and one each of us with him.

And, to have a unity in the overall layout, did the border of the pictures in the same pattern as the room curtains.

1. Take a picture of the curtain.
2. Scan it in jpg format.
3. Open a plain slide in MS Powerpoint, insert the jpg of the curtain to fill the page as background.
4.Now insert the picture of your choice to a smaller size, so that the previosuly inserted image of the curtain stays as a border for the photograph.

 

 

 Thats him...the busy chef, in his playpen.

 

Well..does it sound funny, if I say that I am obsessed with my own possessions?

Did I confuse you ?...

It's just that, he is my first of the lot...and I was really obsessed with him..and used to keep saying..."my! he is soo cute!..he is soo cute...i hope he stays the same" . :)

 

 

Nothing makes them more proud that an open display of their artwork.

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2 yrs past..time for next redo.

 

 

With the total "little men army" count to three..there was definitely no other option than to have the colour Blue for the walls.

 

A space theme...with the astronaut landed on the moon. (The surface of the moon gets hand drawn using oil pastels)
 

...and..the rocket is carrying all his paintings and artworks all the way upto the moon.

Space themed fluorescent stickers for the  sky effect...at night.

 

The rocket heading to the moon.

Clay dough stuff.

 

Used satin ribbon and plastic dress clips to hang the displays .

 Thought this was more handy rather than sticking/nailing all the drawings onto the walls and also, easier to replace the old with the new.  

 

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