Food cover - 5

I used artificial green apples and ivy leaves to decorate this six segmented blue food umbrella. Hot glued making sure the frame doesn't catch the glue.

Bunny Candles

These bunny candles (click to get to the instructions page.) were very easy to make. 

Are they Trixie & Tracy!!

Nope! They'vs got the wrong eyes and... none of them have floppy ears.

I am thinking of making more cookie cuter candles in future. I don't think I have any more of the white bees wax candle sheets. Might make red, green or blue bunnies. :-)

My Pets

The big one with red eyes & straight ears is Trixie who is 4 years & 3 months old. 

The little girl with black eyes & floppy ears is Tracy. Tracy is 3 years and 3 months old now.

Painted Candle

This was just a trial. I found a pack of candle paint at a boxing sale once - that must have been in 2003. The kit came with this white candle. Painting on it wasn't easy - it kept running. 

A Wedding Anniversary Card

Made this for Mum & Dad in 2008 for their wedding anniversary. It is back with me now with Mum's collections.

Mum & Dad would have celebrated their 57th wedding anniversary today if Mum were alive. They got married on the 26th of December 1960 in Trincomalee - a town in the east coast of Sri-Lanka.

Gumball Holly Sprigs

I have been making these for the past few years. Don't know what gave me the idea. I had a whole lot of old bunches of artificial flowers that I had been saving thinking they will come handy for a craft.

Now... I remember. I was going through the photos of the Christmas cakes I have decorated in the past. Suddenly realized I could change ordinary leaves into holly easily using the same technique - trimming off the edges.

All I had to do was to seperate the leaves with the stalk; cut the edges so they look like holly.
Cut  squares (roughly 5 c.m) of cellophane ad twist a gum-ball in each.
Attach tree gum-balls to three leaves with a kitchen twistie. 

Wrap gum tape to cover the stem.

Placed a red candle in the plate for the last Christmas. Found a white star shaped one this time.

 ‍For step by step photos.... click here. The instructions are in Tamil though.   http://www.arusuvai.com/tamil/node/30177 

Merry Christmas to you all

Christmas Holly Cakes

A very very short post this time. :-) Just open the link to find how to make holly cake decoration. http://www.arusuvai.com/how-to-make/christmas-holly-cake-decoration

Once you have made the leaves, you can decorate the cake any way you like.
I used red cachous for the berries on these two. The greetings were from old Christmas cards. They were made for our neighbours last Christmas.

Have a great Christmas.

Yule Log

All you will need to make this is....
a swiss roll & a suitable sized cake board
chocolate icing (roughly 2 cups)
a pallet knife to spread the icing
A toothpick & a fork for drawing the veins of the log
holly leaves and berries (check http://www.arusuvai.com/how-to-make/christmas-holly-cake-decoration  for instructions.)
a pair of forceps ti place the leaves and the berries without disturbing the icing.

Place the cake on a plate and spread icing to the sides. Draw year rings using the toothpick.
Cover the rest of the roll with icing. and transfer cake to the board.
Draw the veins using the fork. Then clean the board and decorate the log with holly as you like.

Check this link for detailed step by step photos. http://www.arusuvai.com/tamil/node/29835

Paper Cracker Snaps

 It was too late/ when I found out I had no cracker snaps to make my Christmas crackers this year . The shops had run out of them. I decided to make my own. :-) The only thing is... crackers won't crack with a big pop. Instead, we will have to sound the snaps after opening the crackers.

To make it....

Cut 4 c.m strips (lengthwise)  out of A4 paper.

Fold it into half lengthwise.

Open and fold a side inwards till it meets the central fold.

Fold the next side too.

It should look like this.

Fold it along the central fold again. The open ends should be inside.

Fold the entire strip into half.

Fold the two sides out to form an 'M' shape.

Hold the middle fold of the 'M' by your left hand. Set the right hand above the left allowing the flaps to rest on the thumb & the index finger. Pull the strips upwards fast to hear it 'snap'. 

Mehendhi

Mehendhi from last Christmas.

Food covers (2 - 4)

Buy a plastic holly sprig.

Separate leaves and berries.

Hot glue two leaves along with a berry where you want them to go making sure you are not gluing any to the skeleton of the umbrella. This umbrella was a rectangular one.

A square one.

One which had six segments.

Food Cover - 1

I saw a decorated food cover in a gift shop lo...ng ago. The price on the tag was shockingly high. I can't recall what those were decorated with now.

Some years later I started decorating food covers to be gifted to friends. This is one of them. I trim artificial leaves to the shape of holly and hot glued them along with  red plastic berries.

Kolam Coasters

Kolam is a form of drawing (in the Indian culture) that is drawn at the entrance of a house using rice flour. People use coloured powder, coconut, dried tea leaves and all sorts of things to make Rangoli - a coloured kolam. The ones above are called 'pulli kolam' (dotted kolam) or 'kambi kolam' (string kolam) and is popular among the Tamil speaking population of India. Since I am Tamil... I claim it as my cultural stuff too. :-)

All four are 5x5 doted ones that I found in arusuvai website. The instructions on how to make these are on http://www.arusuvai.com/tamil/node/30530

In a nut shell... clean tiles with methylated spirit. Mark the dots; draw the kolam and paint it. Follow paint manufactures instructions on curing & fixing / baking. Remove pencil marks gently with a soft soapy sponge when tile cools completely. Pat dry. Stick foam backing when tile it completely dry.

Done!

One thing I have observed with any hand painted tiles is that they tend to stick to the hot mug and lift with the mug often. :-) With time, paint may peel off or the tile will lift with the cup, drop and attempt for a suicide. :-)

Mehendhi On My Foot

This is the first one I tried a few years back.

I don't stick to any particular pattern.

This is random - my own design. :-)

After taking it off.

A second one.

19/08/2017 - A sole-less slipper! '

Why do I always draw on my right foot only!

Going to try drawing o the left one next time.

Carrot leaves

Carrot leaves!
I tried carving these after seeing the instructions of Senbaga Babu in
http://www.arusuvai.com/tamil/node/29369.

 

Trixie got to try them after that. :-) 

Yum! Yum! Yum!!!

Felt flowers

These aren;t actually 'felt' flowers.

Can you guess what they are made from!

Dry sticks from used old felt pens.

The instructions have been published.... only in Tamil.

 http://www.arusuvai.com/tamil/node/22760

Mum's hand

Mum happily let me practice on her hand. 

I must have done this in 2005.

Cricket Trophy Cake

I don't get to make big cakes like this now. When kids were kids, they enjoyed the cakes I made. Some times, the designs were suggested by them and when I couldn't make it exactly the way they wanted, I would try a design that has some connection to their taste.

My son turns 28 today. This cake was made for him on his 23rd birthday. It served two purposes. I took step by step photos so I could get it published in the Tamil website - arusuvai.com

Even though the instructions are in Tamil, I hope the step-by-step photos in this link will help you understand how the cake was made.

Malaysian Stir-fried Greens

The recipe was originally posted in arusuvai in the 'kootanchoru' section by Deva without illustrations. http://www.arusuvai.com/tamil/node/8208

I tried this dish so I could take part in the 'Kitchen Queen' competition. The step by step instructions along with the photos at http://www.arusuvai.com/tamil/node/30263 - in Tamil. The English translation of the recipe can be found at Malaysian Stir-fried Greens 

This is my type of cooking  - fewer ingredients, less preparation time, crunchy, yummy, easy to cook and very healthy; most of all.... is perfect for the days when I have to cook only for myself.

Thanks a lot Deva.

A Throw with tussles

May - 2004

Made this when I had a fracture in my right pinky. Couldn't do any of my usual chores. So decided to try this.

Undoing the material was the hardest part. It got tangled quite a lot. Once that was done - I got started with the knots. They were just ordinary knots at equal intervals. Then... I halved each section, knotted it together with the closest half of the next section. I had to work out a way to keep the two ends of the tussles neat. It wasn't hard.

I still have them after thirteen years, with some damages done to them. The tussles will lose their shape in the washing machine. One of our friends just kept unpicking them every time he was home. ;-) 

Lint Rose!

Lint from my old clothes dryer. 
It had a circular mesh lint catcher. Found a lot of lint after a wash. :-)

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFtJJQn_OYGIjbWGX-69vS87_kubfXuDYZU2109mOgHmG3eeJ95bOmGsMs1MeeNe1i9XzHH7BnAprmAMiq_SQqJt_GZmErBgFIbjffxkJ31-rpu5OC5RA_JkZBXv7Jkmv1WvTiYJnnbw/s400/100_4355.JPG

A Ladybug pincushion

The first sewing machine I bought here in New Zealand was a second hand. May have even been a fourth or fifth hand . :-) It was quite old but reasonably a good one. I didn't have much difficulty with it since I knew how to fix simple problems. I always unscrewed the case and turned this and that and it worked. :-) 

I always lost the pins in the carpet and they ended up in the vacuum cleaner. That didn't matter. I wasn't the one emptying the bags of the vacuum cleaner. Chris always complained. He once was going to chuck all my pins in the bin. :-) I needed to do something then. That is when I decided to make a pincushion. 

To find the step by step instructions on how to make these bugs, click - http://www.arusuvai.com/crafts/how-make-ladybird-pincushion

Flowers from grapes

All you need are... a few firm grapes, a V tool, some toothpicks, a few sprigs of parsley & a piece of an apple.
A vege knife can be used instead of the 'V' tool.
(This 'V' tool came with a vegetable cutter set that was gifted to me by Chris' Mum on my birthday.thirty years ago.)  

Lets's move on to the instructions now.

• Wash and wipe the grapes with a kitchen towel. 
• Remove the stalk. 
• Push the 'V 'tool in to make a petal. 
• Turn fruit around and make three or four more cuts.
• Carefully separate the two halves. 

• Insert a toothpick for the stem.

• Peel the apple for the stand.

• Prick holes using a toothpick where you want the leaves to go. 
• Insert sprigs of parsley. 

Done! Quick and easy! 

Capsicum Anthurium

Some crafts you see online make you want to try them straight away. The anthurium on http://www.arusuvai.com/tamil/node/29447  made me feel that way.

All you need is - a fresh red capsicum, a baby corn, something to use as a stem, a toothpick and a kitchen knife to cut and carve.

Senbaga had used the stem of spinach; I used s a garlic stem instead. I also scraped the edges so the petal looks real. It is so easy to make. Want to try!!

Kia ora!

Kia ora & வணக்கம் (vanakkam) _()_ to all the readers.

'This is Imma's World' - something I was wanting to create for quiet a long time. Got the time at last!

I own 3 other blogs - all in Tamil though. The title 'This is Imma's World' is the direct  translation of  'இது இமாவின் உலகம்' (read it as, Idhu Imaavin Ulaham) - the title of the blog I first created in Tamil eight years ago. 

I like reading posts that are short. I can read more posts in less time! :-)

So... my posts here too are going to be short. Hope you will find them interesting.

Happy New Year!

_()_