Kanzashi flower head band

hi friends today i am going to share my latest creation with you ! a bright orange Kanzashi flower fixed on off white double bow


The center of a flower is a simple button with a pearl glued in the center the button is both glued and hand stitched with the flower and bow for extra durability


thats the back part ,since the ribbon wrapped plastic head band is quiet thin and delicate to provide a wide base to settle the flower on ,i used an extra trim of the same ribbon at the base for support .The open edges of the ribbon is heat treated to avoid fraying .
hope you like it :)

10 minutes flat Sandle's Revamp

Good day friends ,hows life , i am so angry on my self for not being able to be a good and regular blogger ,may be my Gall bladder(removed by surgery)has taken away my punctuality with it :) but the good news is that the creativity inside me is still very much alive so we have HOPE! :)
ok enough beating about the bush lets get back to business a few days back i was enjoying the shopping trip with my elder sis and found some really cool woven flat sandals and they were at a quite reasonable price with lots of potential in them .



So with out secont thought i brought them home and decided to embellish them with simple Kanzashi flowers which i once learned from a Korean friend of mine Miss .Enjang Park .I still miss her at times such a sweet girl :).




I selected this slightly stiff peach color silk fabric and created the two beauties ,its slightly difficult to work with silk in flower making but its worth the shiny look ,for the center i used these fancy peach color buttons which i already had since a long time waiting in my craft box to beautify some thing and yesterday was their big day.




the straps are wide enough so they gave me sufficient area to settle the flowers on them in center with the help of hot glue ,and TADAAAAAA all done some really trendy looking flats are waiting to be worn :) hope you like this simple revamp .

Chinese character in stain glass

Hi friends hows life ! today i wana share a stain glass painting with you all that i made some 8 years ago this is the first painting i have ever tried in glass painting and also the first painting i did after my marriage, my awsome mother inlaw was alive back then and she liked it alot ,mind you friends she was a great crafter her self excelent in stiching and knitting and really good in oil painting and wood crafting some day i will show you her creations ,a really nice person but its so sad that you loose great people like her so soon she died just after 1 and half year of my marriage! one of the reasons this painting is really dear to me is that it has so many memories related to her .



I saw this character on a miniature wooden decoration screen that belonged to my mother in law. I drew and enlarged the image free hand on a paper and then transferred it on the glass .


I have used crystalline blue and purple color in the dress where as milky white in her skirt,handkerchief and in her face.The painting is outlined with golden lead,in the beginning i wanted to frame this painting but hubby suggested that it would look much better unframed if you place it on a wooden holder and frankly now i am quite happy with the result and i just love the way it creates a shadow on the wall behind it :) .Oh totally forgot to tell you that the wooden holder its placed on is hand crafted by my mother in law :) amazing isn't it ! yup she sure was a talented lady and this painting has so many memories related to her may her soul is blessed in heaven Amin .

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Excellent play dough recipe

Hi friends summer is" ON "and summer vacations have also started so every mother knows that the only refuge for her left is to keep the children busy in some nondestructive positive activity ,playing with play dough is one of them :) but the play doughs available in market are not only quite expensive here in Pakistan but the thing that bothers me most is that we don't know what its made from and what type of toxic colors are used in it and we happily spend our own hard earned money on buying this poison for our kids and let them play with it ,for the very reason i decided to experiment and make my own home made play dough with 100% non toxic ingredients and yesterday i finally succeeded in making an excellent play dough with the ingredients that are all ready present in every kitchen .
R U ready for my very own cheep play dough recipe :)

INGREDIENTS;

• 1cup fine all purpose flour (with out self raising agent)
• half cup fine rock salt
• 1table spoon vegetable oil
  
• 1 cup synthetic white vinegar
  

PROCEDURE;

1. Thoroughly mix all the dry ingredients with your hands by rubbing them in your palms thus breaking any lumps (if present).
2. In a cooking pan add the oil and vinegar to the dry mixture and mix well with a whisk.
   
3. On low heat cook for 1 or 2 minutes and continuously stir until the dough is no more sticky to the sides of the pan and starts gathering in the center of the pan this is the sign that its ready, remove from heat and take it out of the pan.
4. Let it cool down a bit when easy to handle(but still warm) kneed it on a clean hard surface .
5. Add food colors of your choice.
   
6. If the stinky smell of vinegar is bothering you just add 2 drops of vanilla essence! but i will recommend you not to add the essence as the bad smell of vinegar will reduce the urge in your children to eat and taste the dough :)
7. Place in a air tight jar and if ever you feel that its getting dry with time or while playing under a ceiling fan then simply add a few drops of water to it and slightly kneed it and store back in the airtight container ,it will be good as new.
   

some miniature dough fruits my daughter present me as a gift for my effort :)

Pillow case dress Refashion tutorial

Hi friends how are you all ,today i will show you how to reshape a simple pillow case dress into a cute ruffly frock


Well the story starts from the day when i made a long pillow case dress for my elder daughter but she some how didnt like it a bit and totaly refused to wear it :(
so i asked her that can this be given to her younger sis and she gladly agreed now the dress was pretty long for the younger one so i decided to do some thing interesting with it thats how i cut it






remember that its a prepared dress with a back so i am showing you the cutting from the front and we aill automatically get the back parts





the shourlder ruffles pieces are trimmed to have a scalloped shape



The neck line is prepared by using a bias tape and shulder ruffels are attached to the body and the lower skirt is pleated and attached to the prepared body .


thats it all done now i just added a big ribbon bow in the center of the body


mommy makes me soooooo mad with her camera at me :)



Now thats better mood :)


the back


fun with sis and cousins :)


BUT! the story does not end hear now my elder dauter is also in love with the transformed look of previously" her" pillow case dress and wants it back :( but now its too short for her .......(KIDS) .......... ! any how the fight got resolved on my promise to her that i will make a dress just like this for her in her choice of fabric and every one is happy :)



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twisted rainbow wire rings

this is a random post about my first attempt on the wire jewelry .I found this rainbow colored wire in a craft store a few months back, at that time i had no project in my mind in which i can use these beauties. A few days ago my elder daughter wanted me to make finger rings for her and for her school friends ........... this was a difficult wish :( as i am not very good in jewelery making! I had to see a lot of videos on You-tube for this purpose and learned some basic techniques from there and then i remembered my rainbow wires.......... i was so overwhelmed with joy :)

and this is the final result .......

The most difficult of the procedure was to find a perfect cylinder shape to roll the wire on to get the perfect size for the tiny fingers ,luckily a ballpoint pen served the purpose :)


rainbow colors were perfect for the beautiful angel hands :)


I am not totally satisfied with this attempt of mine but my daughters are really happy to own their new rings :) and so long as they serve the purpose i am happy too ........ now i should be worried about my own fingers i have to twist and turn the wires for at least 8 more times to get 8 more rings for the school friends of my elder one :)

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free hand pot painting

I painted this little terracotta pot some 15 years ago :) yup it will soon be a vintage item now ! i was studding back then and pot painting became my hobby for a while .This vase is one of many pots that i painted and it still is with me :) rest of them were given to friends and relatives as gifts, if i saw them ever i will definitely share them with you all



I drew a free hand floral design with a pencil and then painted it with simple poster paints ! shades of brown are used with a out line of darker tone ,the out line is drawn with a zero size brush .The mistake i committed was that i never coated it with clear varnish because of which the white back ground developed a bit shabby look over the time, which as a matter of fact i like now :) again a mistake that turned out great (the regular readers of my blog will under stand what i am talking about for the newbies click hear)




a bit more detailed look of the floral design and my camera just could not bare the beauty so it took a blurred pic :(

by the way now i have sprayed it with clear lacquer spray to save the shabby look from turning into a dirty look :)

Happy Valentine's Day

I wish all my readers a very very happy Valentines day ,may you all spend this day near your loved ones in the best of health . Ameen

A quick shoe refashion

I bought a black pair of canvas shoes a few days ago ,they are comfortable like hell but soooooo boringly simple ,so i worked out a quick 10 minutes refashion.



That's what my new canvas shoes looked like before .


i removed the tag sewn on it .


Doubled a strip of black velvet fabric and roled it into a Rosette , sewed it on top of the shoe with needle and thread and added a white bead in center ,I always prefer to sew my flowers on the wearable items as its much more durable then glue and it also does not damage the fabrics .
learn how to make rosettes in this tutorial



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Glimpses from Pakistan "Khyora Salt mines"

Yesterday my family and i visited "Khyora " The second largest salt range of Asia ,a beautiful wonder of nature.



this is the electric train that took us about 1 and a half Km inside the salt mine


the fist thing that we saw in the mine was a beautiful" Badshahi Mosque of labourers" made up of natural salt bricks ,this mosque is 50 years old ,its called the mosque of labourers as it was basically made for the labourers who used to work and dig in to say their prayer inside the mine .



look at the depth of the mine and this is only the 11th floor ,this salt range has 60 floors from where renovations are taking place and the salt is being dug out for the daily use as well as making beautiful decorations pieces like lamps .

hubby feeling the texture of the wall



the "Wishing cave" its been said by people that who ever will lick the walls of this cave will get his/her wishes fulfilled ,don't know how true it is but the people have licked the walls of the cave really smooth :).



a huge model of Pakistan Tower made with natural rock salt.


this rock is formed by crusting of dripping salty water that oozes out of the walls and the roof of the mine,see the salt icicles above .


the mine has many ventilation holes this one is one of them its 60 thousand feet long ,due to these vents the temperature of the mine is constant at 18 centigrade in winters and also in summers . the man standing in front of the cave is our very down to earth Guide .

the entrance to the "Diamond cave "


the inside view of Diamond cave these are not real diamonds only transparent salt crystals that reflect the light and glitters like real diamonds ,this is all Natural formation this cave was full of water for hundreds of years and when the water was drained out this wonder of nature was discovered archaeologist say this type of salty rock formation is not possible to copy by humans .We all tried like hell to capture the real beauty of this cave but some how none of the cameras could capture the real site that we could actually see there :(




A shop out side the salt mines selling decorative items embellished with sea shells .

that's not all we bought some beautiful salt lamps which i will show you in the next post to come so stay tuned .

The little culprit responsible for my absence

This is the sweet little culprit responsible for my absence from my blog from the last 10 days .
some 7 days ago hubby came back from work and entered the house with this little guy in his arms he found this stray on the street . Me and my daughters were so busy in our "ooooooos" and "Awwwws" that almost forgot that we were all strangers for him and he was quite uncomfortable. I picked him up and noticed that he was pretty injured too, most probably had a bad.. bad fight with another cat. Then all of the sudden it jumped off my lap and ran out of the house and out of our sight :( we all were shocked and sad any how life continued and the next day when i was going to drop my daughter to school i saw him out side my gate eating some thing out of the garbage bag with shivering paws in the cold i really felt sorry for him i softly went near him he was still was scared but didn't ran away so i picked him up and put him in my car ,dropped my daughter in school and brought him home .He was quite dirty, wanted to bathe him but i thought it would be too much of an experience for him and me on the first day so i added a few drops of anti bacterial into water socked a brush in it and cleaned its fur ,put some skin ointment on his wounds fed him up and gave him a basket with an old baby blanket to sleep in ,he slept for about 5 hours and when he woke up he was all so friendly with the whole family like if he was living with us for ages.



My daughter named him "Coco".It did took us all a while to settle down and get used to to each other but now Coco is a full time play mate for my girls and a furry friend for me to cuddle with in the morning when hubby and girls are away.

"How i escaped from a monster"

Today was a religious holiday in my country so we woke up a little late then usual, when i was washing my face in the wash room i noticed some fresh bird poop on the basin ,my first reaction was... yuk !but then the other question that came to my mind was that who does it belong to and how and where it came from?
The answer was right over my head ,when i looked up at the exhaust fan a cute little bird was sitting over it who came inside from the exhaust fan's hole but then couldn't get out of it ,then it flew out of the bathroom and started struggling to get it self out of the bed room window ,my camera was near me so i took a few shots to share with u all

when i went near the window to open it she flew back and sat on our rocking chair

the poor thing was so terrified that all she could think was " this human is trying to catch me and eat me, that's it nothing good can be expected from them after all ".
I the monster some how managed to open up the widow and when i moved back she flew again to save herself from the scary human "God does this species ever get tired of chasing us "


out and free to tell her friends that how lucky she was today to dodge a wicked hunter who was trying to trap and catch it in her house and eventually EAT it but..........as it was not her time so she found a small opening in the home and escaped back to her family ,Happy ending!.......:)