And they arrived!

The lovely lady behind Rainbow Bunting hand delivered the loot today- an owl, an elephant and a customised  item.

Aditi took an instant liking to the aunty and Anush identified the Hungry Caterpillar she had got for us.

Thanks again Shruti for hosting the giveaway and Saritha for your lovely gifts!

Am sure Rainbowbunting is going to have a huge fan following.

Eggsotic Banana Fest

We witnessed a rath yatra like a Tomatina fest , devotees ( teenaged boys mostly) were pelting bananas at the chariot, some even managing to land them on the top umberella! Aditi said they are " naughty boys" to be flinging anything other than a ball. Some lessons are well learnt.

Our apt housekeeping does not disturb rangolis till i smudge them up a bit at least. So got to take this snap of Anuska's handiwork.

Does zero comments mean zero readers? Apparently not as per statcounter. But still a few comments would not hurt me. Are you LISTENING?

Rainbow Ice

Just had fun with the girls by making a multi coloured ice lolly with mango- blue Curacao- strawberry squash!! This was the inspiration.

HoliDay!

No colours for spraying, only for the Rangoli ( coloured soap chips, discarded by my office).

For playing, we had aqua pure fun.

Deeply DP

Recall the song ? I used to like it . Really!!

Anyway this DP is Devdutt and Anush has tried to copy his art in Jaya.
We thought for the time she took and her age it was a decent effort.

The originals and her versions

Take Heart

Here are Anush's creations for the Heart Theme at Artsy Craftsy this month

A earbud heart, some pipe cleaner hearts ( courtesy Shankari), a heart collage.

We are not too sold on Valentines Day so have not highlighted this to her.

"Foreign" in India

The Spanish Mosque
It is always interesting and often impressive, how in older times itself western influences found their way into supposedly conservative domains.

Here are Anush's impressions of masters for Artsy Craftsy over at Shruti's

Front row seats

Another weekend at Chintamani- we went to Navy's school Annual Day and had SO MUCH fun. There were about 27 dances and a skit. I had to prevent myself from getting up and dancing along given how senior MIL is in the school!!

Was mighty impressed with the really decent moves the kids came up with even on some newer movie songs. A shop called Prabat helps on sets and costumes and some are bought by parents as well. Really grander than anything I have attended so far in any city.

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Pl look up my book reviews at Shruti's MM and the one at ST in view of the Chinese New Year!

BTW I was born in the year of the Dragon. And here is a pic of the inhouse little dragon.

Lamps galore

Anush and her friend had a good time together and here is a pic from our Karthikai clebrations. The treats turned out truly yummy ( appam, sweet porri and adai). We also burst a few no-noise crackers and Aditi has really begun to enjoy them.

Aditi loves wearing dupattas on any attire and yesterday managed a click of hers in this cute outfit without one. The outfit is courtesy S's mother. Send in your orders to S if interested and also here is another organic cotton bag from the NGO they support which I really liked.

Colours

Nice that the colours of all religions come together this festive season.

While on colour, the flower laden trees in Bangalore and the flowers in Delhi are so inviting this season.

Anush got a fab review at school, except for her extreme intolerance towards noise! At home, she is one of the key noise makers...had a casual word with her on this.

Down and Out(ing)

Missed meeting M from Chennai who was visiting Blore since all at home have been rather unwell.

But met two good friends ( both from our alma mater) who dropped by at home. Great to see the kids bond as always.

I went to take a quick peek at the Strand sale and forgot to buy the book I most wanted- one by Sabuda!!

We went to Kala Madhyam at Chitra Kala Parishat . Picked up a variation of Warli called Chittara. Most of the stuff is made up of the regular suspects but some of it was enchanting.

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Me: Aditi! You love Amma ?

Aditi: Yes

Me:How much?

Aditi: Too much!!

A (no)cracker of a Diwali?

Standard fireworks have stalls in large grounds all over the place.
Went and picked up some non noisy crackers. Though it amounted to a lot of money

Am unable to imagine a cracker less Diwali though it might be the more eco friendly option.

Would you refrain from buying crackers completely?

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Anush and I enjoyed the Namma metro rides thanks to my father who got passes on time before the queues turned serpentine.

Diwali Streamers

Apart from coluring  a dozen diyas or more, this time Anushka and I worked on a lantern  streamer

And my father had managed to light each one up and it looks really gorgeous at night.
Drop in some evening to see it!!

Card for all seasons

Anushka, like a lot of kids her age, makes cards for all occasions and people.

There are many get well soon, welcome home cards that keep happening at home.

Here are some that I wish to share for Shruti's Arsty Craftsy:

She did these as farewell cards in her Montessori school

She made this one on paintbrush and wanted to print it

She sketched and coloured this herself for Krishnashtami ( inspired by Ghee happy)

She made this for her school for the Ganesh festival

She used blocks we bought outside Bull temple for this

Will post more as I click them.

Happy Teacher's Day!

Here is what Anush made for her teachers using blocks:

I debuted as a story teller last weekend at Monkey Maze in Indira Nagar with Elefunt Tales.

A great experience and hopefully one of many more to come

Had an audience of about 25 kids and some parents

Did some elephant theme stories with a lot of Jeeva pointers sprinkled in and some craft

Cherry on the icing- 2-3 kids wanted me to continue and kept asking me for more crafts!

While on craft we went to this neo-rustic cafe called Chaipatty. Navy and I had opposite opinions on the food there. Pic courtesy Anush:

And here is an interview at ST with the inimitable Jeeva! Don't miss this chance to leave your questions in the comments on the post at ST? She has agreed genrously to respond to them!

Gajavadana!

Happy Ganesh/ Vinayaka Chathurthi! Anush is holding the play clay one she made. Of course the one we bought is not colourful and is a plain clay one.

Ganesh has been the favourite Artnavy family deity. We have slowly stopped collecting idols for want of space and novelty. Time to revive our quest as Navy told me a couple of days back.

The girls had a great time with T Anush's buddy who had come for a sleep over. One of the many fun things they did:

Art on Janmashtami

First time that Anush has used Pencil shavings I realised.

The Krishna is inspired by Ghee Happy.

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Was in Chennai and got to meet Uma of Adya fame and that was indeed refreshing. 

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In an unpleasant development, we found that some gold had been stolen from us as well by the cook. Most of it has been recovered by a very earnest police officer.

And Aditi got her first peek ( hopefully last) into the police station!! She kept on pointing to thaatha( Gandhi) and wanted to see his large photo from time to time.

Gyaan Bhandaar

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http://www.jodogyan.org/home

Am sure you will love them too.

Aha ! Oho!

Aditi's first attempt at art. She had fun. And I felt it fit right into the Rangeela theme at Artsy Craftsy. So here we go. The youngest member of the Artnavy family!

Spent time with the wonderful R&S family at Rangasankara. Anush managed to attend two story sessions. I was disappointed we missed Vayu Naidu. Till next time then!

Aditi had a haircut - I only let the parlour do it post their assurance that her curls will grow out again- wait and watch now... She certainly looks naughtier with this hair style.

With rains come....

Anush has drawn and coloured the first one herself, the second one is drawn by me and coloured by her.



We are submitting this for the colourmania on at Shruti's blog. We love colour and were wondering how life would be without it




Anush and I wondered if there was no colour......Imagine a traffic light? We would have to read the sign and how many languages would we need to write in then?