[Pastimes] Rangoli for Deepawali 2013

The rangoli that I designed for Deepawali this year was a variation of peacock.

Peacock is associated with Goddess Lakshmi and hence is an auspicious design for Deepawali. The colours are significant of peacock. 

Hope you like the designs do share what designs you had done for this Diwali by posting a comment.

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[Pastimes] Rangoli for Dhanteras 2013

The first day of Diwali is celebrated as Dhanteras, when we welcome Goddess or Wealth Sri Lakshmi to our house and also wish for prosperity.
This is Rangoli I created for Dhanteras

I chose to do it in green and warm colours like red, orange and yellow because green and red colour are used to represent Sri Lakshmi in various cultures, while yellow is the colour of gold and orange was used to connect the colours. The paisley is one of the traditional rangoli designs inspired from mango; which is an auspicious design. 
It was a really windy day and so I was not really happy with the haziness that became a part of the design. I prefer my rangolis to be sharp but could not do anything.

Hope you like the designs do share what designs you had done for this Diwali by posting a comment.

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[Pastimes] Rangoli For Deepawali- Part 2

After yesterday's post (Read here) on my Diwali Rangoli Designs, today's post is about the designs I created for Diwali of 2009. By this time, I gained much more confidence and was ready to explore little more complex designs than those from last year. This time, I decorated my doorway for 3 days.
Diwali is celebrated for 5 days- first day is Dhanteras, which is celebrated to please Goddess of Wealth, Sri Lakshmi and a lot of precious purchases are made on this day; the second day is Naraka Chaturdasi, which is to celebrate victory of Lord Krishna over a demon named Narakasur; the third day which falls on a no-moon night is the main festival and is celebrated by worshiping Goddess Lakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth and Lord Ganesha, the elephant God, remover of all obstacles. People light of their houses with clay lamps and welcome Sri Lakshmi into their houses. The fourth day is celebrated as Govardhan Puja in north to commemorate the victory of Lord  Krishna over Lord Indra by lifting a mountain called Govardhan on his little finger, while in southern India it is celebrated as Bali Pratipada, to celebrate the victory of Lord Vishnu in his dwarf form Vamana over demon king Bali. The fifth day is Bhai Duj when sisters and brothers express their love and affection for each other. 
So the celebrations goes on almost for a week and it is a great fun when you celebrate with family and friends. 
Now, coming back to Rangoli, in 2009, I designed rangolis for first three days and here are the pics.

This design was done for the first day. If you know me by now, you will be able to see one of my signature designs- the paisley.

This design was created for the second day. I kept it really simple.

This design was done on the day of Diwali at the doorway. Again featuring the other design which I love to create - the Peacocks. This is the most elaborate design I have created till date.

This design was done at the Puja area. If you notice in the last post also, both the designs in the puja area have lotus motif. This is because Goddess Lakshmi sits on the Lotus flower and these rangoli motifs signify the seat of Goddess Lakshmi. We invite Her to our houses and also keep a seat ready.

Hope you like the designs and share with us what kind of designs you like to create by posting a comment.

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[Pastimes] Rangoli for Deepawali- Part 1

As some of you may be aware of the Indian Hindu festival known as Deepawali or Diwali or Divali. It is the most widely celebrated festival among Indians. It is also known as 'Festival of Lights'.
One of the significant custom is to do the Spring Cleaning of whole house and decorate it well. The doorway and the 'puja' (prayer) area is often decorated with 'Rangoli'. 
Rangoli, also known Kolam, Mandana, Alpana etc. in various parts of India is a folk art used to decorate the floor of doorways and courtyards during festivals to welcome the deities. Various media can be used individually or in combination- dry colour powder, flowers, rice paste, coloured marble chips, paint etc.

When doing a rangoli on Deepawali, I prefer to use Colored powder which is easy to sprinkle, yet requires a lot of practice. The first time I tried doing Rangoli of Deepawali was in 2008 and here are some pics-

The first two pics are of Rangoli done at puja area while the last one is at the doorway. I love doing floral and geometric designs and sometimes combination of both.

Do you like doing Rangoli on Deepawali or any other occassion? What are your favorite type of design?
Do leave a comment and share...

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New Section- Coffee with Friends

Hi Everyone,
It is been a while that I discussed with my friends about starting this section and finally I got the time to write about it. Basically, this section is dedicated to all my friends (be my friend... if you are not yet, I love having new friends)! We all meet once a week at each others' place for playdate and coffee and often make so many yummy snacks and then end up giving our recipes to each other. Apart from that we discuss about various parenting concerns since all our kids are in the same age range (just few months apart... ranging over a year), so I thought of starting this section, where all my friends can be the guest blogger and share their recipes, their parenting concerns and wisdom, style tips, creative endeavors or about anything they feel like. 
The posts in this section will be published once a week (most probably Friday)
The posts will be shared with a brief description about the author, a pic (if you want), link to their website or blog etc.
If you are sharing a recipe, please make sure you have a pic as well as food is more of a visual delight than anything else.
I am sorry but I won't be able to publish recipes that contain beef or pork in any form, if you have an alternative to these meats, please do mention.
Anyone, who wants to be a part of this group can mail me at nsur20@gmail.com

Signing off in a hope to make this a success!!

[Pastimes] Trying my hand at Paper Quilling

Hi Everyone,
You must be wondering... now what? Paper Quilling? Somehow I can't explain but there is an itch in my hand to try out as many art and craft techniques as possible atleast once in my lifetime. So, here I was trying my hand on Paper Quilling. Paper quilling, also known as Paper filigree is an art form where strips of paper are used to create various forms. The coloured strips are rolled, coiled and glued to create various shapes. The average strip width may vary from 2mm to 1-2cm. The process is tedious and may get monotonous but the end results make it all worthwhile. Check out my two creations with quilling and these are just the beginner trial level. 

[Pastimes] Entertainment for Mums!

After yesterday's post on Edutainment for Kids (Best Disney Junior Shows for Toddlers), I felt that why should I leave moms? As in when kids are watching their favorite shows, what are we mums doing? I am sure most of you, if not finishing your household chores are getting connected on Social network and some of you must be playing games as well on Facebook!
Who all do that? I am guilty of doing that...
Let me tell you all about my favorite games, get hooked on if you feel like ;)

1. Bingo Bash
Social Bingo with various fun and adventurous rooms and power ups.

Image Source: http://developers.facebook.com