I am Back

 I am Back! It's been a long time since I've last posted. But I feel like it is time to start fresh :D

A lot has changed since I have last posted on here, with more crafts, inspiration and interest. 

I hope to share so much of what I do here and look back at it as a "diary", if you will, of every time creativity has sprung to me. I hope all goes well!

Painting the Goddess of Fortune

Hello everyone! Now I know its been a long while but due to some technical difficulties I couldn't post the three important posts I wanted to share. However, now I can. The first post is something that personally was quite of an achievement. Not too fancy but still amazing. This is painting Goddess Lakshmi-Hindu Goddess of Fortune.                                                                                                                 Now, in previous posts I've shared my paintings that are paintings that aren't detailed. One example is my Ganesha which was an artistic way with his head and hands along with a mantra. So this was my second approach-the first being Shirdi Sai-of painting a deity with full details and from my last try I learnt a few tips.                                                                                                                                         The items I have used are

•  Acrylic paint colours-Titanium White, Yellow Ochre, Vermillion, Black, Light Blue and Dark Blue (from Artists Loft)
• Watercolours (from Artists Loft)
• Watercolour pencils-pink and black (for outlining-optional) (from Artists Loft)
• Pencil (for sketching)
• bowl of water (for washing brush)   
• A canvas

First came sketching/drawing. I personally like to plan out paintings when it comes to detailed ones unlike before where I just let my brush lead the way. Remember that you want to make sure you draw what you can paint-for example, draw small little details on the crown if you think you can paint them with the brush. You can always use watercolour pencils of course, if you have them.

  Now I decided to use watercolour pencils to outline the eyes and hair. The colour I used was black.

 I then proceeded towards painting. I started off with the hands and head using a mix of yellow ochre and titanium white.

  Then using merely yellow ochre I painted the crown and jewellery. Using pink watercolours I painted the lotus.

 Now using a pink watercolour pencil, I outlined the lotuses.

The paint started dripping as you can see. Now came painting the Sari with Burnt Sienna and Vermillion as red is usually identified with Lakshmi.

I painted the clothes a long with the crown. In the back I added a coin/sun (yellow circle) with a mix of Yellow Ochre and Titanium White. Watercolours were used as well. 

Now using blue both light and dark blue, I painted the ocean 

 Finally I added a background with Green/Blue and Burnt Sienna/Yellow Ochre. The second mix is one of my favourite  background mixtures. Painting backgrounds itself are favourites. 

As you can see above now I painted some gold pots with coins inside including showering coins along with some clay lamps (diyas) on lily pads. I had to cover up the yellow circle thus making some yellow stick out.                                                                                                                             Well thank you for reading this post. I am hopeful that you to will try to paint as well. This was a fun project and I loved it. 

Om Namastestu Mahamaye, Shri Pithe Sura Poojithe, Shankha Chakra Gada Haste, Mahalakshmi Namostute 🙏ॐ

Making a Rose Garland

Hello Everyone!

First of, sorry for being inactive for these past 5 to 6 months? Wow that's about 182 days or more/less! Well I am back and better than ever as I "rose" back to creativity. What I am posting is easy "floral". Okay as you could probably tell from my boring puns and the title, yes we are making a rose garland. Now, whenever there is a prayer, I make garlands to adore the beautiful Idols and Pictures of the Gods. I realized I was inactive so I say to myself "Hey! Why don't I just make a post on the garlands I am making!!" and here I am.

The items I have used are

•  4 roses (you can use more/less just make sure it is an even amount of roses)
• rose leaves or any other type of leaf (types below) (optional)
• marigold or any other flower(for middle-optional)
• string
• thread
• bowl of water (for washing flowers)

I used flowers from my garden and sometimes there are little bugs or just dirt from the garden inside petals and what not. To make sure that all you have from your flower, is a flower, I suggest you wash them. I wash them by soaking them in a bowl of water for a little bit and just moving the flowers and turning them so they are cleaned on sides. This will ensure that dirt will just flow out. Of course you can just put them under a running tap and wash them.

 Above is a picture of the bowl. Now what you want to do is remove the petals of the rose. PLEASE NOTE: we are using 4 flowers 2 for each side so when removing petals please make sure you keep the petals from the 2 flowers separate from the petals of the other 2 flowers. Again you may use more or less flowers just make sure you are using an even amount for example if you are using 10 then 5 will go on one side and 5 on the other side of the garland. The reason I separate both side's petals is to make sure that each side is even in size. ALSO NOTE: if you are using leaves then leaves can be used to separate each flower. One flower equals all its petals. So it is 1 flower's petals, leaf, 1 flower's petals, leaf and so on. Therefore put the flower petals from each flower separate as well so you know where to place each leaf. If you do not want to use rose petals some other options are parsley, cabbage, spinach but those are better for flowers itself not the petals therefore I use the rose leaf.

Now fold each petal in half. Rose petals can easily rip therefore folding it a) helps it be stronger b) gives it a better look. It's like using a paper towel, folding it makes it more stronger to clean messes. Now put the string through the needle and start putting each folded petal from the needle to the thread till the end.

 Stop when you complete putting one flower's petal. Now add the leaf if using one. You may add more than one it is your choice. Repeat the process putting a flower's petal and then a leaf. You can also put more than 1 flower's petals before the leaf depending on how many flowers you use.

 Now that you have put all the petals and leaves for the first side you have two options. PLEASE STOP TO READ THIS: You can cut the thread and leave that flower string aside or just put the marigold like that. Basically, if you make two flower strings and you want to add a middle part of it, you will need to make a middle part by putting the flowers through the needle. The benefit of this is that you can have a middle part with flowers hanging on top of each other. Then you would get both the two flower strings and tie them together, and then tie the separate middle part in the middle. OR you can just string in the flower without cutting anything like I did. This way you can have flowers beside each other. Both look beautiful. You can even do the first option without cutting if you leave space for middle. Let's do the method that I did, the second method. OKAY CONTINUE.

For this, I am using a marigold so it hangs down. When cutting, I left some parts of the stem on since that is the place I put the needle through. This makes it hang. Therefore put your needle through the stem of the marigold.  Here's a tip. If you want, you can get two other flowers and string them with the needle going through the stem and coming out the flower petal part for one side and the opposite way for the other side. It looks great.

 Now continue the other side. Once done cut the thread leaving some thread to tie. Tie both sides of the string together. AND BLOOM. I mean boom LOL. You have a rose flower garland. This method of using a string and thread is much easier then tying them. The idol looked beautiful wearing this garland. You can even connect a bunch of garlands and without closing make a thoran (Indian Decoration hung on the Door) or you can start with a marigold or another flower, string the roses and with another marigold/flower and have an open garland known as an Andal Malai. Some also use it for hair tying!

  Well thank you for reading this post. I am hopeful that you to will try this out. It can be a garland for worship, decor or just a free time activity. I will hopefully come with another type of flower garland but until then, bye everyone!

Sarvam Shri Krishnarpanam ॐ

Christmas Tree Cake

Hi!!!! First of all, I would like to apologize to all my viewers for not blogging lately, I've just been very busy. Now back to the post, I made a Christmas Tree Cake. Now, this wasn't meant to be a professional cake, it's just a cake that I wanted to make since a) it's the holidays :D and b) I had the idea ever since December 1. Usually I'd give a detailed procedure with many pictures but this time I just wanted to bake a cake with no stopping or interruptions so I tried to take pictures of immediate steps. Plus, the cake was made using mixes from Wilton and Betty Crocker but I will tell you how I made it and the items I used so let's get started!!!

Yes, I was about to make the best Christmas Tree ever compared to other of my cakes. So, I was originally going to use a vanilla, confetti or French vanilla cake mix and add green food colouring but I decided to go with chocolate fudge cake mix of Betty Crocket because logically the wood is brown, I guess? Please feel free to go with any other flavour and to make it green just add green food gel/colouring and mix until its all green. I made the chocolate cake according to the instructions and put it in a buttered rectangular pan. If you don't like buttering the pan then you can just use parchment paper but you need to remember that 1) parchment paper can NOT be in an oven thats 400℃ and up even though the cake is to be baked in 350℃ which is okay and 2) you need to cut the parchment paper so it's flat and does not bend otherwise it messes with the cakes shape. For the oven, make sure that there is nothing on the top left stove because thats where heat comes from the oven. Bake your cake for 30-35 minutes if using a rectangular pan which is good to use for this cake. Then once fully cooled, assemble by cutting a Christmas Tree shape, if you would like you could cut out a star. If cutting the shape is too hard, just cut three triangles and arrange them from smallest to largest. Cut a small rectangle for the trunk if wanted.

Time for the icing. I decided to make buttercream icing, my favourite. The reason I don't like to make buttercream from scratch is because when I make it, I some times run out so I have to make a new batch. One day I was in Superstore and as soon as I entered the baking isle, the first thing that caught my eye was this Wilton buttercream mix. I thought that if I buy this mix I won't have to keep on making buttercream numerous time for one cake and I was right, it helped a lot. It was 6$ but worth it, and let's face it, many Wilton products are expensive haha. You can also purchase this and almost all Wilton products from Micheals. The thing is that one box is for one cake but I'm okay with that. As you can see, in front of the box is an offset spatula also known as an icing spatula. These are heaven when icing a cake, and especially the sides which I didn't do. I found this at Walmart and it was 8$ I think, and again 1) this spatula is awesome and 2) perhaps you can get this from Micheals too. By the way, it's not a Wilton product but maybe you could find one that is.

Before I did the above coat, I did a crumb coat which I unfortunately didn't take a picture of. For those of you who don't know what a crumb coat is, it's basically a layer or coat of icing that goes on the cake before final icing. The crumb coat is not supposed to be perfect as the purpose of doing it is to keep all the crumbs together before you do the final layer. Once you make a crumb coat, you would pop the crumb coated cake in to the fridge for 15 minutes. Remember to not put a warm cake in the fridge which is why we completely cool the cake before icing, we also cool it so it doesn't melt. After you do the crumb coat, you can put the rest of the buttercream. What I did is get the buttercream and add green food gel that's really useful. Add many drops to get a colour darker than the one I have if wanted. I must admit that this icing colour is great to make a grinch cake. After smoothing it out with my spatula I made an outline around the cake with icing.

And it is done! I finished the cake with pearl sprinkles and finished with small sprinkles, which are the tiny sprinkles scattered on the cake. As you see, I added in my trunk. The cake itself was delicious and I can not wait to eat it. I hope you also decide to make a tree like this, or to boost your skills, I challenge you to maybe make a Christmas tree cake, a grinch cake or maybe a Santa cake and share the pictures with me.  Please do comment if you have any questions and don't forget to share!! Merry Christmas to all of you celebrating ☺

Stay Green

Hello again! This blog is the start  of decor journey. I'd like to thank  http://pinkzpassion.blogspot.ca for inspiring me! Please check out her blog as its been 3 years since she has been blogging!!!

Ok so, this is our green corner. Here we have green plants and a green Buddha which is so cute.♡ 

 Let's talk a little about this corner. I got a small square table that is brownish in colour. I added a light blue, wait for it, PILLOWCASE on top of it. Why not use the resources around me LOL! I placed a cute  green Buddha I got from a store inside a mall. That store is my go to place for decor ☺To the left I have added a Jasmine plant in a marble pot and in front of it is a plant with leaves, I guess? Sorry I forgot the name :/ . Beside this is a framed picture of lord Rama, Sita, Lakshman, and Hanuman. in either sides of the picture is two small little Sai Baba statues. Now these are the small idols that are meant to go on cars but I think this was a better place for these cute idols. In front is a small stainless steel plate holding a clay diya from Diwali. This diya has a tea light candle inside.

I hope this inspired YOU to create this. The more calm or zen spaces you have inside your home, the more peaceful you feel. Clutter effects us negatively, we feel claustrophobic and the clutter might make us mad. But when you have beautiful, clean and Zen like spaces, you start feeling more calm and happy! With this thought, I will take your leave! Cya!!

Happy "Belated" Diwali!!

Hello my friends. Just a quick announcement. I have made an Instagram account for this blog! If you search @pinch.of.ronit you shall surely find it. Now this account is temporary just to inform others of my blog so it will be taken down after a while! ☺. Ok let's begin this post

Diwali was a blast! Celebrated with family and friends, lit a small amount of sparklers to prevent pollution, had a divine prayer and lit many diya's (oil lamps) and candles!

 We hold Vedic Pooja's which I have learnt. One ritual in the Pooja (prayer) is after deities have been bathed and dressed, 4-8 diya's are kept around Goddess Lakshmi. These Diya's are then put around the 4 corners (if 4 diya's are lit) or 8 corners (if 8 diya's are lit) around the outside of the house after the Pooja. These primary diya's keep the house bright. After the Pooja other diya's and candles are kept as well. I was awed at seeing this divine sight. We placed Goddess Lakshmi on a bamboo plate and kept the diya's around her in the eight directions (N, S, E, W, NE, NW, SE, SW). She was offered pink and red carnations to enhance the sight!

 I personally don't like dealing with coloured rangoli powder (rangoli is a design made in Indian homes). I made a Rangoli with 4 diya's and 4 flowers. I kept these around the yard to make sure everywhere was bright 😊

 This is the Kalash. A kalash is a sacred pot kept in prayers. I was loving this Kalash plate!!

This is a picture of one of the shelves in our Prayer Room cupboard. We lit our Aarti diya (left) and Lakshmi/ Kamakshi Diya too (Right).  These diya's are available in puja stores from small to big, it is very auspicious to keep a Lakshmi Diya/Deepam in your home! Behind is our little Bal Gopal and to His right is Lord Ganesh and to His left is Lord Ram, Sita, Lakshman and Hanuman. To the right of the Lakshmi Deep is a statue of Kartikeya/Murugan. The big photo in the middle is Goddess Lakshmi, Lord Ganesh, Goddess Saraswati all together. What a divine sight ☺

 I made this Diwali centre piece! We were gifted this plate thing (idk) and it came with these pebbles and colour assorted beads. When I cleaned this, I had to take out all the beads and I didn't want to sort  out all the beads so I just mixed them up. I then added these diya's and tea light candles and it looked magnificent. I still have this centre piece in my living room!

Thanks for watching, see you soon!!!

Paintings I've Made

One of my hobbies are painting. I am a self taught painter which is something I am proud of! You will see tutorials of Hindu God paintings and other paintings in this blog too. Here are the pictures I've made!

 So, this was my first ever painting. There is a pretty interesting story behind me making this painting and starting to paint. I wanted to attempt to create a Kerala Mural Art painting of Lord Krishna. I spent an hour looking for Krishna Kerala Mural Art pictures on google and then found one. The tutorial video I saw was for Ganesha's Kerala picture. As I always do for art, I went to Micheals t o get the items which included carbon paper (which I couldn't find 😕) , a ball pen (couldn't find), tracing paper (wouldn't go on the canvas), acrylic paints and a canvas'. I came home and tried tracing the layout which didn't work. I couldn't free hand draw the layout because Kerala Mural Art is too detailed! So I gave up. Then I thought of painting Ganesha! So I spent, wait for it, 10 minutes looking for, not mural, but ABSTRACT Ganesh paintings. I finally chose one, painted the background and Ganesha, and I was done! I was so proud of myself. I guess even Ganesha wanted me to start this Abstract painting journey with His Grace! Om Shreeman Maha Ganapataye Namaha!

 This is a painting of my dear Lord Krishna. This and all my paintings are free hand painted, no design, no outline, just paint! I started with a background with a mix of yellow ochre and burnt sienna. This is my favourite background mixture and I use it for all majority of my paintings. I painted a corner with prussian blue and a little bit of sap green to maintain the dark colour. I was trying to go with the theme of blue representing the night and the yellow and sienna (which is like red) representing the light and day. Like I said, I TRIED!😜 I painted Krishna with blue and yellow. I added a turban and a cute little peacock feather. I avoided adding face details and decided to put a Vaishnava Tilakam and a small line underneath it.  I finished it off with a Prabhavali, which is an arch placed behind the deity in most temples.

 Okay, can we take a moment to appreciate my decorating skills?! So, this is a painting of Krishna's hands holding a flute. It is in a black hole which is surrounded by my favourite background colour burnt sienna and yellow ochre. I kept it in our kitchen (which is why you can see a Roti keeper LOL). I usually take pictures of my paintings so to make it look fancy, I added a vase of beautiful pinkish carnations.

 This painting was made a month before Maha Shivratri (I think). It is a picture of Lord Nataraja, my favourite aspect of Shiva. I decided to use a black canvas and white painting with burnt sienna for details (mostly cause those were the only 2 colours I had left and I was too lazy to go to Micheals LOL). I painted Lord Nataraja with hair flowing out and merely a Tripundra Tilakam cantered with sienna since it looks red. I added a moon on His hair, and detailed his Panchakacha. I added some mountains that barely look like the icy Himalayan Mountains. I added a Trishula which is his weapon.  I wrote Om Namaha Shivaya in Hindi and Tamil just cause.

Finally I made dot art inspired by Aboriginal dot art. I took a black canvas, white and burnt sienna paint and dotted away. 

These are the paintings I have made so far and I can not wait to make more to show you all!!!!