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Archive for the month “August, 2011”

31 Aug 2011

Dia is a Jet Setter!

Dia
While Gagan was away for a couple weeks, I decided to brave a cross country trip alone with Dia to visit my cousin- Niti and her family. Mother’s mother is called “Mausi” in Hindi. Oh yeah, we have different names for each relation. And they are different if they are from father’s said. For example, Father’s sister is called “Bua”. That’s your lesson for today. Moving on…

So I was a tiny bit concerned on flying with her alone now that she is a little mobile. But all my worries went away when I entered the plane. Dia loved it! She was happily sitting in my lap strapped to mommy in her sling. We had a 1.5 hour layover in Atlanta which was just enough time to go from one terminal to the other and exchange my window seat for an aisle.

Once there, Dia loved all the attention she was getting from her Mausi and her cousins. My 9 year old Niece went crazy! She was like a mini mom to Dia. The second day, we were there, I was actually able to leave Dia with Niti and went out for a little bit with my Niece and Nephew.
nikhil

anusha

Did I mention that I love girls and girlie girl things? Anusha, my niece had been saving this bead making kit to make with me. And we did. It was so much fun. A quick trip to Michaels and somehow we ended up with more beads than she ever needs 🙂 But at least she will have an endless supply of bracelets.
beads

anusha

Day 3 was baking with Mausi day! We donned our aprons and baked chocolate chip cookies. YUM! Here’s my go to recipe for triple chocolate cookies.

cookies

cookies2

Day 4 we spent the day in San Francisco! One of my favorite cities in the whole world. Did I mention that in my previous life I wanted to be an Architect and this my friends is the city made for them. I was so mesmerized by the little houses with cute porches that I even forgot to take pictures.

We did some touristy things..
With my niece

The Golden Gate Bridge…
ggbridge

ggbridge2

Hung out at the Pier
pier

And Of course had the famous Sourdough soup bowl.
boudin

sourdough bowl

At home with Niti and the kids, Dia loved swinging in her backyard. And we loved it so much that we locked ourselves out. OKAY, I admit, I locked us out. God bless my Brother in law who came to rescue us with his key. Oh well… they don’t call me absent minded for nothing 🙂

Swinging

On our last day with Niti, Dia started crawling! We even caught it on video.

Little munchkin had jetlag! It was too cute. On our ride back home, Dia slept throughout! Me, I kept my eyes closed trying to lock in the wonderful memories from our first trip together as a Mother and Daughter. Memories so beautiful, that years later when you close your eyes again, you are taken right back to the west coast, in the valley, at the foothill of the spectacular mountains.

Back home in New England – Home sweet home, we both crashed for 10 hours!

More Pictures from our California Trip

Posted in Dia, Travel | Leave a comment
04 Aug 2011
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Cutting up a storm

You’ve heard of “Sewing up a storm”. I am not sewing! I am cutting. Yup, that’s right, a cut-a-thon. For some reason I am enjoying the prep work more tracing, cutting, feeling the fabric more than the actual sewing. Look, I’ve filled up this whole bin.

I am not going to set myself any sewing goals this year but I am trying to sew more to fill the holes in my wardrobe. The problem is, they are all TNT patterns so while they are quick and easy to sew, I miss a challenge every now and then. I had a little one last night though. I had a yard of this really yummy bamboo knit I had bought years ago at Vogue fabrics in Chicago but never got around to using it.So I pulled it out and got to work. I decided to make this top. Kwik Sew 3032

Man that is an old picture! ok, moving on.. So as I was cutting I realized I am not going to have enough fabric for the cowl. Are you kiddin’ me? That’s the most important element of this top. So I decided to “Make it work”. I come from a family of frugal women who have always created wonderful things within their means so I closed my eyes and thought of them.

The problem with the cowl was that it was too wide and it’s cut on the fold and I needed two of these! I didn’t want a seam down the center front so I re-drafted the pattern to take some of the drape off so it would fit on my left over fabric. You can see in the photo below, the original cowl pattern is under the sheet. I took off about an inch, but marked another line in case even that won’t fit.

Look, it FITS!

Moving on to the next piece. I could just make this a one piece cowl since my fabric is the same on both sides but I decided to cut the other piece on the fold.  Since it will be technically the facing, the center seam won’t show.

Added seam allowances at the fold line

Problem solved! It may be a simple change but it allowed me to use the pattern I wanted in the fabric I wanted. The sewing… well that’ll take care of itself later on whenever I have time. Now what can I cut next 😉 ?

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged
03 Aug 2011
1 Comment

It must be nice to be loved this much

“It must be nice to be loved this much”, says Gagan one morning while planting kisses all over Dia. Seriously, if you test the DNA on her face, it’ll be a crazy amount. We’re having a really fantastic summer. We’ve done a lot and it’s hard to believe she is 6 months old already. Not that fragile little tiny tot she was when she was born. This is fun!

Back to being loved… What Gagan said, made me think. Ever since becoming a mom, I feel closer to my mom more than ever. While feeding Dia, burping her, rocking her to sleep, bathing her, I wonder, “Did mom do this with me”, “What did she feel when she became a mother”? Both Gagan and I are first borns and because of that we do share some personality traits. But what sucks is that we often forget how much we were loved to when we were little. I think it’s important to remember that to value the love and affection showered on us not only when we were little but also now, when we are older. For children never really grow old for parents. do they? I understand why my mom lights up when I call. Or even now when I visit, she wants to make all my favorite foods.

That is LOVE and we are so grateful that we have it.

Back to Dia, as I mentioned, we have been busy.

We had Babaji (father’s father), Dadima (father’s mother) and Badi Dadima (father’s grandmother) visit, which was a lot of fun.

We had the mundan ceremony in which the grandfather shaves off baby’s hair. We save that hair to offer to the deity later. It was a lot of hair!

With Grandpa after the Mundan

Leslie came to stay with us for a few days and lets just say, I kinda lost my voice after she left. I don’t think we stopped talking for even a minute! She was the perfect “Mausi” to Dia. And the cool thing was that Dia got along just fine with her. But then, she is Leslie Mausi.

Among other things Dia attended Daddy’s graduation

Went on her first family vacation.

Had many visitors and was the center of attention (still is) while they were here.

We got her a pool. She loved it!

We even made some gifts for Daddy on his first Father’s Day!

We also went to Boston for a nice luncheon with the ladies and made new friends.

What’s really thrilling for me is that she loves to spend time in my studio while I sew. She loves the whir of a sewing machine and the brightly colored walls, the texture of fabric and loves hanging out with me there. I can’t believe I am actually sewing!

I love this photo!

We’ve had 3 rounds of immunizations and I must say she is a very brave girl. She is sitting up on her own now and is almost about to crawl. There is really no point in working when she is around so I don’t even try. Have I said this before? I love being a MOM! For me it’s the greatest feeling in the whole world. I know she is going to grow up and do her own things sooner than I realise but for now, we love hanging out!

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