Snows of Kilimanjaro

Presenting you the 'Snows of Kilimanjaro' shrub which is blooming fully in the parks of my surroundings.The blooming time for this plant usually in the months of November and December. It produces a mass of creamy white bracts which looks like miniature white poinsettias. Native of Central America this shrub grows up to 2 m tall. When it blooms, the air around is filled with a sweet pleasant smell. This gives me an excuse to take the kids to the park full of these flowers.
But be careful while cutting, pruning these plants, the white secretion is said to cause skin irritation.

Next time when you come across them blooming, do stop by and indulge in it's sweet smell.

Flowers wall hanging

Hope you all Indians had a wonderful Deepavali. 

While cleaning the craft supplies, I found a flower loom which was bought ages ago. While buying the flower loom I had thought of definite project  but so far I haven't started -:). Few flowers were lying about which I had made just for sake of learning. An idea struck to me.  I made few pom poms, added some colorful beads and put them all together. Voila!!! you have a colorful hanging!. I put it on the mirror in the common wash basin, which definitely colors up this corner. 

Things you need : Flower loom(available in craft/fancy stores), wool, needle with a hole big enough to pass the wool, colorful beads to match the wool yarn.

Flowers using the flower loom.  As you can see, I used only the inner pegs so my flowers are small .

Poms poms..

Pom Poms.

Jaya, by Devdutt Pattanaik

I bought this book a long time ago on Flipkart, recently finished reading it. It's an interesting read, once you start it becomes an addiction -:).

Most of us would have heard the stories of Mahabharata either through our elders or by watching the famous 'Mahabharata' which used to be aired on DD once upon a time. I have couple of books on Mahabharata one for the children , one for facts by C Rajagopalachari . But what is interesting in 'Jaya' is its simple, beautiful illustrations, the way it is narrated. You feel like reading more and more and never putting it down. Even people who don't like mythological stories too would love to read this since it flows like a fiction.

What I loved was the box in the end of each chapter where the author gives us an insight into the local, regional version of few of the plots. Also how these stories are relevant even today, what lessons we can learn from it as a reader. At the end of the story  the concepts of dharma and justice are explained very well.
You will learn lot of new things from reading this for instance,
Pandu while dying tells his sons, ' I have after years of meditation and celibacy have achieved  great knowledge and is embedded in my body. When I die eat my flesh and you will be blessed with knowledge'. But the Pandavas cremate their father and will not do as their father had instructed them. However Sahadeva one of the Pandavas sees ants carrying tiny pieces of his fathers flesh and eats the ants. After doing this he would know what happened in the past and in future. He eagerly wishes to share this information with his brothers but stopped by the God himself. God instead  forbids him telling anything voluntarily to anyone. He says when people ask you questions reply with a question. He waited for the people to ask him right question but it never came. Interesting isn't it?

Rain rain go away..

It's been raining non-stop here in Bangalore, so much that I started hating these rains. It's all wet-wet every where. In the garden you see lot of snails, fed up of killing them.  I am so longing for the sunshine.

Have a nice, rain free weekend everyone.

Jog Falls, Karnataka

Continuous rains past few months, we decided to visit Jog falls. 

Jog falls is located in Sagar Taluq, Karnataka, India and is the second highest water fall plunge in India. We took Bangalore-Honnavar highway via Shimoga which is in good condition. As there were adequate rainfall this season, it was the right time to visit. After visiting we heard from the locals that couple of days before the gates of the Linganmakki dam were opened and there was a thick flow of water. But what was presented to us was beautiful.

View of the Mahatma Gandhi Hydro electric power station.

En route to Bhatkal, on the coastal Karnataka, we found this breathtaking beauty. It was more beautiful than Jog, since we could see it, hear it from very near. Had it not been deep we definitely would have plunged into it.There are hundreds of such waterfalls in the Western Ghats, India which would sure leave you spell bound.

Greenery everywhere..

Shriman Shrimathi(Recycled pencil holder)

How do you spend quality time with your kids? One way is by crafting with them. Ask for your kid's ideas, execute them. This is about a recent craft activity done with elder 'P'. The detailed instructions are here .No matter how it's turns out they would always love to show off the end product. I love to see his face of satisfaction in the end.
We have done this with the kitchen paper rolls. Few activities like cutting the roll, drawing was done by me and the REST by elder 'P'.

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When I posted it on my blog and showed it to him, he was even more proud of it and enthusiastic to do more such activities -:). Good isn't it?
Linking this to Colours Dekor Weekly-story-wk-26

Warli Bookmarks..

Hello readers.. How was your weekend?

 Mine was super, I did a lot of creative work after a long time.

Nowadays you see lot of thick invitations of all size, color, weight. I had kept aside a couple of them, thought I would make something useful out of them. I took one house warming invitation and took out the plain side without any text on it, cut them into equal shapes and size. They were small, I painted a few warli motifs on them and turned them to bookmarks. Why bookmarks?

Bookmarks are hard to find when they are in need in my house. Courtesy my two kids. Elder one always wants them, doesn't know where he keeps them when he lays hands on them. The younger one just wants to play with it, crumple and finally throws into a dust bin. 

I hope to keep these at least for few days and make use of them. 

 After painting, this is how it looks..