Canvas Art -(2) kolam/muggu - for gifts

I saw this idea at someone's place (actually at two homes atleast) and loved the simple idea of saving the tradition as well as showcasing it in such a way that it blends in with transitional style. Past christmas I gave some as gifts. Finally I made 4 for my home. There were several parts that needed to be decided - choose the indian muggu that goes on it and figuring out how much space it needs and how big or small can we make and what colors would look nice.

I am big fan of metallic colors as it has a little ting of glow with it. So I chose mostly the metallic peacock pearl color, metallic berry, satin lipstick, satin red, regular black, white, metallic green (winter color) etc.





Here are some pics :

Canvas Art - (1) Initials

I tried looking at online to do something easy and fun for kids as well as me or as a gift, I saw the initial project at one of the website and started trying those. I made my kids do it for their own rooms with their initials. They liked it.

I also gave it as present to close family who has newly borns. I am happy how they turned out. Here are the pictures of some of them I/kids made:

Here are the final ones of what my kids made:
(We learnt from my son's one that we should stop at a point otherwise it will be too much rounds).

My first gifts I made - initials : I like the green and blue colors. However I still feel I could have made the A even more better. 

Another gift ready to be given (lots of names start with "A")

How to do - the first two pics shown are given below:

The color combinations I used are explained in picture below:

Paint the surfaces with the color you want. Paint the sides also. Let them dry and do a second coat of paint if needed. 

Use the circular dots, dip in paint and apply on the canvas. make sure you do not apply too much. adjust the paint with a small brush. Let them dry. If you are not satisfied, apply another coat of the paint on top again of the white dots using brush. 

Now I am not a free style artist, so I practiced the initial on paper first, then I tried to do the initial on the canvas using a paint of self color that way it is not that evident. I then applied the paint on it. That is how I achieved the initial canvas.

Custom Coffee mugs/Gifts

I did some coffee mugs for family members and some fun time for kids to do their own. It was fun. ONlY thing I could not figure out is how to make it last long. I tried some of them stayed long and some of them did not. I would sparsely clean up and may be used more for the cup holding pens etc I guess. Here are some pics:

2017-Backyard plants - 2

For some reason, I have atleast nice gourd seedlings and the moment I put them in ground they are not surviving. I believe it is because of the squirrels I have and they are bothering a lot this year. Here are some other plants that are coming up nicely this year. I do have some issue this year. This time there are holes forming on the plants especially Roses and tomato's in some area of my garden. I have to keep an eye and spray something natural on them to make them survive.

bad news apart, I am excited that for the first time I have small grapes showing up on my grape tree. I am very happy for them. I will need to keep an eye on them too just in case. As part of the yearly planting new trees/shrubs I got a blueberry and a regular tree. So 2 new addition to back yard.

One of the positive things in backyard are the flowers. A glimpse of backyard flowers. 

Our small seedlings are still trying to come in the plant box.

 our small movable plant boxes have okra, tomatos and some pepper and chilli plants in them.

 one more small tomato plant who is growing nicely.

 One more positive thing in backyard is , I have started getting first time fresh grapes from the tree.

2017-Backyard plants - 1

I started this time to plant for seedlings around last week of march with only little luck. Now I am in middle of May and I could not plant them outside because of weather going down and up crazily. However I do have some of the pics I can share on what we did this year. Some areas got cleaned up and some small seedlings got planted.
Roses coming back again:

 My first batch of flowers from my garden to god:

Some seedlings came in April

 I was happy to see the green beans coming up fast to I seperated and potted them for time being. however after I moved them to the yard in April end when weather was good.... I lost them :(. Because of crazy cold weather in second week of May.

 My husband and kids working on a plant bed

Plant bed in progress:

May buy for backyard:

My husband made a plant bed for me again. During renovation I lost the two plant beds I had. So here we go. Thank you hubby!!

DIY - Tea light holders Upcycle - Dollar store DIY

I saw this upcycle on pinterest and I had all items right at home since 10 years no changes made. I thought it will be worth spending a few minutes and give them a new look. Here is the output.

items required (or available at home)

 tea light holders

 Glue gun

 Upcycled one of the holder

 Finished two of them. Not perfect but a new look. Change is good :).

Home Renovation - Final Product :1 - Front Porch

With my contractor giving up and trying to suck up more money from us, we decided that we will go with multiple other persons to get the stuff done at home than to rely on the guy and be in the exact same situation after one month again.Our home got finished almost (no furniture) around November last year.