Busy, busy summer!!

Just a quick post for now, and then I do eventually plan to go back and resume my parenting/ education related tips. I have had a crazy busy summer, what with having a combined graduation party for my girls, my older daughter moving to San Jose to start her residency at Stanford, my parents coming over from India to attend my girls graduation, Alaska cruise etc etc....
All through this, I have still been crafting, and want to share some of my latest felt mats...posted on Etsy....

I have also been beading, but I am realizing that I tend to leave my beading projects unfinished. Ummmm...will need to find a way to rectify that!!

Well, I guess I can sneak in a quick parenting tip- following up on the "being a good role model"...    Another way I was a good role model is that I was always working really hard, and expecting the same from my kids. For about 7 years, I was teaching full time and also either working on my second Master’s degree and then my Doctorate degree. IN addition to this, I was always taking care of my household, attending to my girls education, AND pursuing my crafting endeavors as well. Did I forget to have fun?? No, I don’t think so….Achieving in itself is a lot of fun. We were social, got together with friends, went on trips, but my socializing was never Number#1 on my priority list. It struck me as odd that sometimes students would assume that my girls don't have a "social life" because they are hard working students.

That's it for now...will continue later!

Some more felt mats, and my first "tiger mom" tip!

So yes, I am still on my felt candle mat kick.....Have been cranking them out like crazy, just was not getting time to take pictures and to post :) Here is my latest lot......

The cupcake one is really fun, I added bugle beads as sprinkles. Not yet listed on my Ebay or my Etsy, but will be up there pretty soon.

 As I promised in my previous post that I will start writing, not just for the sake of offering some help/ insight for like-minded and concerned parents, but also just documenting for myself, some steps I took in raising my daughters. Following up on that is my first tip :  

1.      being a good role model- Heard often, but used......ummm, let's just say, not that often. There is a saying “An apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”, and yes, it is very much true. Here are some steps. Today, I'm sharing the first one-  I took to stay a good role model-  I made conscious decisions to stay a teetotaler so that I could expect the same from my girls, with full conviction. I remember one of my students telling me during my first year of teaching, “there is no way your daughter will graduate high school in America without drinking”. As a “fobby” immigrant, I actually remember being seriously scared by that. Well, 12 years later, I am happy to report that it never turned out to be an issue. 

I hope to continue documenting a comprehensive list of actions/ tips here on my blog, so please check back or comment if you have a question. No meanness please. I was taught that it is better to stay quiet if you do not have any thing positive to contribute, so I'm hoping others will also respect that :)

Some finishes, and learning a new craft.....

I had been meaning to learn beading for a long time, but never got around to it, so when an opportunity presented itself for me to learn it at my school, I was not one to let it go :) So here is what my bead loom looks like

This will hopefully be a completed bracelet soon. But the amount of strain it is putting on my eyes....., I feel that I am starting this hobby at a wrong age. I need younger eyes.

Among the finishes, here's one I have to share...It is the "Call the Midwife" blanket, inspired by a British TV show. It is listed here for a very reasonable price. I was also able to finish up a couple of felt candle mats, but still need to take pictures of them. Plus I started working on my Yoshi graph afghan, which looks like it will turn out to be huge....I'm trying to do about 4 rows every day, so with 160 rows on the graph, just getting through that will take me 40 DAYS!! Then add the border....What did I get myself into :)
Keep on crafting....

More felt mats!....

So yeah, I'm still in my "felt mat production overdrive mode", and I have 2 more patterns to share today.

Totally enjoying making these...I will probably work my way up to some more complicated patterns eventually :)
My current and future projects? Working on a Tardis amigurumi to be given as a gift to my younger one's friend, and then have been commissioned by my girls to work on graph afghans (!!!!!) for them :D It all started with the pretty, colorful baby blanket that I was working on, and my younger one saying " I wish I was a little baby, so I could have a colorful blanket", and I said to her, well, you know, you could even have one now! Take one to college with you....so with her being a Mario fan, I looked up some graph patterns for her, and then in order to be fair, decided to make a Hello Kitty one for my older one as well. But, even though I've been crocheting for 35 years (!!), I have never tried one of those graphgans.....my girls have faith in me :) but I figured, I would try out a small graph pattern first. So big plans....wish me luck!!

One more felt mat, and my first recipe.

My Easter candle mat sold within 2 days, so that was nice. It also means that I can go ahead and make more of that pattern. I also made a couple of these maple leaf ones, listed currently in my Ebay store....

I'm currently working on a heart/ Valentine themed one as well.....On another note, since my older daughter will be moving to California to start her residency, I'm trying to teach her some basic recipes to make on her own. I know, I know, it's finally sinking in......No Mommy to provide packed containers of food anymore :( So, in that quest, the first recipe we tried out are these
Vegan Yellow Mung Daal cheela with carrots and onion (also Gluten-free) Recipe
Cheela is basically a savory pancake....very healthy, you get your protein.
2 cups yellow washed skinless mung daal (buy at Indian store or Whole foods?)
1/4 cup besan (chickpea flour)- you can use whole wheat flour also but it will not be gluten-free anymore.
3 carrots, grated
1 onion, chopped finely
1 green chilli, chopped finely
salt and red chilli powder to taste
vegetable oil
1. Soak daal for a couple hours, and then grind to a paste with enough water in your mixer.
2. Add the remaining ingredients except the oil.
3. The batter should be pourable consistency, but not watery or runny. Add more besan if this is the case.
4. Heat your electric griddle to the max (you can just make them in a flat pan instead). Add a couple drops of oil, drop a large tablespoon of batter and spread it out to make a thick pancake. You should be able to get 4-5 on your griddle. If they are too large, you will have trouble flipping them.
5. Sprinkle a few drops of oil to the top of the cheela, flip over, and cook till browned patches appear, pressing down with your spatula to make sure it cooks evenly.
6. Take them off, and enjoy with tomato chutney, chilli pickle, plain yogurt or even Sriracha sauce :)

This is my first recipe, so it would be heartening to hear a comment, if you do try it out :) Also, please keep in mind that I'm an amateur trying my hand at writing out a recipe, not a seasoned professional who has published several cookbooks, so the quantities are just eyeballed ones...you can use your own judgement with them.

Two more felt candle mats, and maybe 27 more coming??

Here are 2 more felt candle mats that I finished this week.

Both are loosely inspired by images I saw online, but I cut my own scallop shapes and everything else out. I am totally enjoying making all these felt mats, they are pretty quick to whip up. The planning and cutting seem to take more time than the actual stitching. These are both listed in my Ebay store at very reasonable prices :)
Working on a maple leaf one next....Plus I'm on Spring Break now, so more time for crafting :) even though, my plan right now is to devote a good amount of time to organizing my personal craft store/ stash, the size of which has grown to an unmanageable extent, I have to say....Oh well, as I like to say, hubby better be happy that I'm not an alcoholic/ shopaholic or gambler :)

Yes, more felt candle mats....

So we had a great day yesterday, found out that the older one "matched" to Stanford for her Neurology Residency! Headed to warm Cali-FOR-NI-A :) Now, we wait to find out all the places the younger one gets into, and then help her finalize from those choices. Exciting times!
On the crafting front, I am now officially hooked onto wool felt "penny" rugs/ candle mats. I have a huge bag of felt to finish up (that's what I'm telling myself), and the more I create, the larger the number of ideas that spring in my head :) Isn't that funny? And, I'm one of those people who do not think of themselves as a designer at all.....Anywhoooo...here's my new Fall themed felt candle mat, inspired by some images I've seen on the internets, but then I always add my own touches to it.

My WIP's this week? Working on another felt mat, more in the traditional penny style this time, and crocheting a ton of team color hats to use up yarn from my stash! I've done Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks so far, doing a Dallas Cowboys one next.....will share next time :)
Till then, take care, enjoy the warmer weather if you were in cold climes like mine, and keep on crafting :)

Felt candle mat, and a Lego blocks scarf!

It's finally warming up here in Minnesota :) It was such a crazy winter....I felt like it just couldn't make up it's mind. November was unusually cold, December and January were warm (Brown Christmas!) by Minnesota standards, and then February brought back sub-zero January-like temperatures...so, I'm thankful for the Sun coming out, and am not going to miss the March snow even one bit.
Here's what I've been crafting....I made this felt candle mat in preparation for a Community Education class I will be teaching over the summer. I am happy to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this quick project and have a large bag of felt that I now plan to put to good use! So be prepared to see more of my felt creations here in the future :)

Also finished up a couple of Lego block scarves:

The scarves will be listed in my Ebay store, and eventually I plan to have some felt creations listed up as well.

Till then, take care, and start using up some more of that yarn from that humungous stash :D

More felt creations in the works!...and a "name doily"!

So, I have been busy teaching some Basic Crochet classes, and working on some felt embroidery squares. I hope to sew up these squares into pin keeps/ pin cushions.

I just free hand embroidered these pieces, which was stressful but somehow liberating at the same time. I would say that I am quite pleased with the results! I like the randomness of some of these pieces.......I also added some seed beads.

In addition, I started working on thread "Name doilies" for my daughters! I had been meaning to try out name doilies for a long time, and then I got the bright idea to make these as graduation gifts for my daughters :) My older one will be graduating from Medical school this year, and my younger one is finishing up high school. Big year in terms of changes!!

Here is the tutorial I am using...and you can pick an alphabet chart from here! So far, I am pleased with the results and am happy to report that it is much simpler than I thought. My daughter wants a block edge with no border for a more "modern" look :)
I hope everyone is keeping warm if you are in cold climes like me! Have fun crafting, and spread/ share what gives you happiness :)