true colors

with valentine's day coming up, i thought a quick primer on the meaning of a rose's color might be in order :)



red: love & romance

pink: appreciation

yellow: friendship, joy

white: purity, innocence, spirituality

orange: desire, passion, enthusiasm

purple: love at first sight, enchantment, majesty

darshan

darshan is my 5 year old nephew - and he is awesome. his name means "a vision of God." he is smart, has dimples, lots of friends and interests, is learning to ride a bike, and loves his bedtime stories. sometimes he lets his mom help him cook, but mostly he's busy doing wonderful things and showering his little cousin-sister and -brother with lots of love. he is currently auditioning for a talent show at school and is considering a piece on breakdancing. his mom says his moves defy description.

he's a great kid and gives great presents. for the holidays he made me a coffee mug with my name and a butterfly on it, a suncatcher, and a gorgeous card with a diamond on it.

here's the suncatcher in my office window -



here's the gorgeous card - 3 types of lace and a diamond! -



here's the inscription inside the card -



i'm his "maasi" which means "mom's sister".

i love u too darshan :) & good luck on your audition!

love of craft

i'm so psyched - i just registered for the thing-a-day craft project! i just *love* the idea of people from all over the world getting together online to share a month of creativity. and the 2nd best part is that it can be anything creative -- cooking, drawing, photography, writing -- but you're only supposed to put aside 20 or 30 minutes to do it!



its kind of like stream of consciousness creating...

more pink

i've mentioned before about how i am such a beginner at sewing. my favorite things to sew are pillows and guest towels. i think it's b/c they're small projects, using only straight lines, and give me a real sense of satisfaction for such a quick creative activity. these are some pillows i made for the holidays to go with my pink and green theme --



i love these pink and green dots!



i also can't stop buying these hot pink carnations at the grocery store...

tiny snowstorm

just a 3" snowfall -



can make the day a bit more special -



pam sent me this cellphone pic of the view from her office. so pretty :)

gift wrap

i got my mom a camera for her birthday (jan 1) so i thought some "picture" wrapping paper might be cute and very theme-y. i used a picture of us that i love -- i'm about 7 and we're on a ride at an amusement park :) i enlarged it, then i attached a smaller version of the picture to a gift tag.

























for m. i got a gps, so i printed out a map (get it, gps & map?) of punjab, india -- thats the province he's from -- and enlarged it, then i made a circle punch of the exact city he's from and attached it to a gift tag.



even with the map paper, and him talking about a gps for about 3 months, he still couldn't guess what was in the box.

winter green

it's the middle of january and my house is 67 F -- not too tropical a temp, but just look at the new chartreuse growth on my peace lily. i have 4 of these and they are all doing well this winter.

pam's gift

i made these kitty kitchen/ bath guest towels -



and matching candle for my girl, pam.



how cute are those kittys watching the snow fall?

pink

ever since my mom's *pink* themed birthday party - i am totally loving the color -- just look what it does for a dreary desk!

stocking up

i am having a hard time making my own meals for weight watchers, and these were on sale (5 for $10), so i just bought about 30 of them. its kind of like a no brainer jump start. can u see the blue bunny ice cream box? triple chocolate ice cream sandwiches - only 3 points!

oh no!

i love my little townhouse. i bought it b/c of the heavily wooded backyard. so u can imagine my *complete & total horror* when i woke up today & saw a new little paved road/ path running its way through my wooded paradise!



i left a message with my HOA to see what the deal is - it looks too narrow to be a road...what could it be????



in the east there is this saying that sometimes when u love something so much you jinx it -- i think i might have jinxed my backyard!!!

-- update 1.12.08 --

got in touch with my HOA and they said there is some watershed or park runoff that needs to be cleaned up every 7 or 8 years, and that the "road" is just where the machinery flattened the soil. they also assured it me it is state park and will stay that way. yay - no jinx! :)

just a little something

got this picture in an email today saying it was a "one in a million" pic & God's way of saying "have a nice day." don't know if it's for real or where it's originally from - but somehow it seems like a believable pic and a cute sentiment.

the big girl blues

what do you do when ur a *big* girl and can't wear the cute fun sexy sparkly clothes you'd just love to wear to a holiday party? well, u play with ur makeup, of course! this was the *festive* part of my new years eve outfit - a new mac eyeshadow called parrot.

loving cb2 & crate and barrel

this new bollywood pillow from cb2 is beyond groovy.

the main image is taken from a film i saw as a kid. it's called umrao jaan and the woman is a hugely famous actress named rekha. it's a kitschy classic from the overdone 80's. very very cool!

-- and in a related story --

i was cleaning off some glassware from my mom's party and -- like i always do -- i washed them and placed them carefully on a towel on the counter to let them dry. i went to the living room and a few minutes later i hear 2 very slight "clicks" coming from the kitchen. i walk over, pick up this glass, and the base of it just comes off in my hand. weird, huh?



anyways i called crate and barrel and told them what happened, they looked up my order from august of last year, and said they would mail me out a gift card for $50 - the amount i spent on the glasses. i don't even have to lug them down to the store to return them. i am *so* impressed with their customer service!

ps. they told me crate and barrel gift cards are good at cb2, but not vice versa - can u guess why i was asking ?!

sin and repent

sin



repent

my new years eve

the last week was so hectic with family events and celebrations -- all i did was decorate, celebrate, and stuff my face. we celebrated a *big* birthday for my mom (she won't let me say how *big*) and that was a huge success.

but b/c of all that activity -- my personal "new years eve" was last night. a chance to reflect on things a bit, trying to come up with plan to keep myself on track, reading zen habits - trying to plan my MIT's, and just starting to try to get it together.



this is me trying to plan out my 1st week on weight watchers - horrified at my recent 6 lb weight gain, completely cleaning out my email inbox, kind of watching the office, and looking at the flowers from my mom's party - and thinking about what i really want from my life. for me that is *such* an incredibly hard question. i can't seem to separate what i want from what i *think* i should want - i can never find that line.

and its getting late. its already 2008.