Penang - The Pearl of the Orient

It was raining since a week before we went to Penang, Malaysia. Luckily the day we landed it stopped raining.. We got a couple of warm, sunny days with glorious skies!!! Penang is known as the Pearl of the orient.. It has beautiful beaches, tropical forest, natural beauty, lovely people and yummy local food!!

It is also famous for Batik, white coffee, nutmeg and other locally grown spices, 

Teh Tarik ( white Indian tea)!! Also charming and most ornate Buddist temples.. 

It is so peaceful and relaxing!!

This was our first long vacation after moving to Singapore.. 6+ months back.. we were glad we both found time..though we were the only crazy people with blackberry on the beach..lol..but yes we managed to have lot of fun!! 

Have a lovely weekend!! and yes all those from cricket playing countries let me tell you India is gonna win this world cup on Saturday;)!!!

Joining Skywatch Friday!!!

Madhubani painting on book cover

I am fond of Indian folk/traditional style of painting..  Madhubani or Mithila painting portrays nature or hindu religious themes... One of the popular design is the tree of life.. A tree blossoming with beautiful flowers and leaves of all shapes and sizes and some birds.. thus representing life, nature,happiness and hope.

Well..It all started when I saw my almost 2 year old sketch book cum diary lying there all plain and drab.Many ideas came to my mind as to what to do to give it a remake.. to jazz it up..Do you have a old book lying at the bottom of  your cupboard in dire need of remake..well let's pimp it up!! All you need is a design to paint and some colors...I used acrylics, water colors, permanent marker and a black pen for outline. 

This is how I made it .. Sketched the design with pencil. Filled it with colors..To give it a dimensional look.. I used thick acrylics for some flowers, leaves and branches to make it look kind-of raised from the background. Some flowers I painted with watercolors.. giving them a softer look. Used marker to highlight some parts and outlined it with black pen.

And Viola!!! There its done!! A revamped book which I no longer have to hid inside the drawers!!

Joining Metamorphosis Monday and Weekend wrapup !! 

Spring Tabletop & Notable Newbie!!

Hello lovely people!!! I have been enjoying the beautiful photographs of spring on everyone's profile, blogs, flickr, magazines....I am drolling over some lovely spring decor inspirations I  had posted earlier .Check it out here!! So I created a spring vignette for my table!!! 

Everything here is so fresh... Just baked hot 24 cupcakes..fresh cut roses..a freshly made sketch... 

The smell is all overpowering..Spring is in the air.. crisp..fresh and cool breeze ..and with it the floating smell of the roses and baking...Incredible!!! I made Angel food cupcakes.. It is usually made in a bundt cake pan or a round one .. I made them in a muffin tray..You can see the recipe here!!

This sketch is in the series of the almond eyes ladies I sketched earlier..See here!!

It is so nice and sunny here today!! I want to share a very good news!! BlogAdda has featured me as a Notable newbie on their frontpage!! So excited!! Made my day!! It inspires me to write and do more with my blog!!! Thanks Blogadda!!!

Russian girl in traditional dress

The progress of my painting- Russian girl in traditional dress. I had mentioned the WIP here..Thanks all for asking and so I have been able to finish it sooner than I thought!! It is  acrylics on canvas- A4 size. I did a lot of research for the dress and for the embroidery patterns on the dress.. 

I used one of the beautiful patterns of Russian embroidery for the background as well..I found some really lovely sites for these patterns ..If you love embroidery this and this  has good patterns..

There are still a few touch ups I want to do here and there ..but majorly she is done!!

Hope are having a lovely weekend!!!

Spring decoration inspirations..

Spring is here ...and its time to bring out those little plants, decorate the house with daffodils and other fresh flowers from the garden and chirping birds and humming of bees!!! A lovely time to change the decorations around the house..  Here are some inspirations for the spring decor...

                                                                                                                                  Courtesy: French Larkspur

A pretty country cottage table decor... This beautiful vignette is created on the theme of the beginning of the spring and the gardening season!! Tracey who is the author of the lovely blog French Larkspur has a beautiful quaint house and her decor ideas makes me miss spring in Switzerland a little bit:)

I love the wording on the board.. 

So apt..

No Winter lasts forever; 

No Spring skips its turn ~ 

Hal Borland

                                                                            Courtesy: Style me pretty

Love these vase made from fire wood.. A lovely idea for spring table centerpiece and to use the extra winter wood!!

Courtesy: House to home

Pink is definitely dominating this lovely garden party table decor.. I love the idea of the little bird on the plates with the name place cards.. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                Courtesy: Martha stewart

Looking for DIY ideas for your spring table.. How about these Daffodil coasters!! Just cut up daffodil shapes from a colorful card stock !!

                                                                                                                                                                                              Courtesy: Becolorful

Decorate the front door for inviting the spring indoors...For how-to get this look see here!!!

Courtesy: Fun tea party ideas

A lovely eco friendly idea for the window sill... How pretty isn't it!!!! Use empty egg shells for new plants!! 

I am totally inspired by these Spring decor ideas..How about you?

Will post update on my paintings on the weekend!! Thanks all for asking!!

Indian dessert - Phirni

No meal is complete without a delicious dessert. Even if the main course was bad I think if the dessert is good you will be definitely be forgiven by your guests:)  So when I am having guests I always start by preparing the dessert! Just to keep up with my resolution of eating healthy I am trying to make my dessert as low cal as possible.. So here is one such easy dessert- Phirni.

For this dessert you will need:

Rice  5 tbsp

Saffron a pinch

Milk 1lt

Pistachio nuts 10-15

Sugar 6-8 tsp (increase as per as your taste) 

Green cardamom powder 1/2 tsp

 

Wash and Soak rice in water for half an hour.

                        

   and then grind it coarsely..( either in a mixie or stone mortar)

Bring milk to a boil. Add the grinded rice to it. Stir constantly. Let the rice cook completely.

psst..Did you notice the spoons.. These are the same ones I painted couple of years back..they still look good don't they!! I did a tutorial of How to paint these spoons.. If you haven't seen it yet ..Here is the link!!

       Dissolve saffron in little hot milk.. 

In case you are not using sliced pistachios... blanch pistachio in hot water and remove skin and slice.

While you are doing this keep a eye on the milk..To avoid the milk from spilling over here's a tip. Keep the spoon in the vessel .. like the way shown in the pic above on medium heat !!  
Let the milk reduce at least to the 3/4 th quantity you had initially taken. Add sugar, saffron, cardamom powder and cook till sugar is dissolved.

Garnish with pistachios. Serve chilled.

Joing Patty's Weekend wrapup!!

* This recipe is based on Sanjeev Kapoor's recioe from his book- Khana Khazana.

WIP: Russian girl in traditional dress

Finally ending my hiatus..I will resume my creative updates on this blog regularly.. Thank you all for having so much patience !!!!

Sharing with you a picture I took today of a new painting I am working on..( after so many weeks I clicked a pic..felt so good) A Russian girl in her traditional dress.. I grew up reading Russian books and dreaming about the mysterious world ..I had sketched this girl more than a year back but never painted it..

How are you all doing? Hope you all have a very happy weekend!! My prayers are with all the people living in the regions hit by Tsunami.