Trying so hard not to buy anything related to stationary and craft here! But failing……

Whilst most of you are getting up today I will be heading off to Pune or Poona for my final (promise really!) set of supplies for my last week here in India. I just need a bit more paper, some mauve fluffy pompom balls, a bit of lace, some leather for a luggage tap and a marbling ink if I can find it. And then I will complete my projects, ship them off next Friday and head to Delhi for my last weekend. Then whooosh home!

Postscript

I have quite a few projects to load up on my blog so there will be at least five per blog and some extra blogs to fit everything in. My plan is once I get on the plane home from Delhi my blog is then history!

Machine Stitched Fabric Montages

I was still carrying round the remains of my trusty “dust” sheet from the Dia Homestay in Pushkar from November. It had lots of colour and some rather interesting mirror patterns. Also, the treadle sewing machine here in Andeshe was a joy to work with. I tore up five different sized pieces of fabric with interesting motifs and I sewed them onto purple paper and then this onto the larger A3 paper.

A stencil from spray painting of a boat’s helm from Pushkar!

I was really enjoying going round and round and round etc

I became increasingly confident with my sewing skills so the last one I made had a rather intricate spiral sewing pattern. Also, these are completely flat so they should pack easily and travel well! Here’s hoping…..

Maybe a dinosaur at the bottom in the centre?

Pompoms

Another sort of disaster project. I am writing this early evening and my dismay at my pompoms is slightly alleviated by the wonderful frog song I can hear outside!

But back to pompoms. I really do love making pompoms. Foolishly I had bought some new-fangled device in the Purl Soho shop in New York when I had a perfectly serviceable pompom maker at home. It was expensive and doesn’t really work and of all the things I left at home I wish I had brought with my tried and tested pompom maker. Before I came to India, I used up all my blue yarns to make a very long pompom chain for Betsy to have at Uni with 17 pretty large pompoms. It is in the communal part of her flat as decoration for all to enjoy (so she tells me?!)

The pompoms I had made with yarn I had brought with me – mostly from the 2019 Mystery Blanket excess. I photographed this at the Camel Conservation Lodge near Ranakpur, Rajasthan

My mini pompom set threaded on a length of tencel. Quite a few of my projects take this shape – like the lavender bags I made right at the outset.

So, I made some pompoms at the time of my tree bandaging/bombing project early on in Pushkar. I remember specially bringing a very large ball of yellow as this is a good contrast colour for purple as it is opposite on the colour wheel! I don’t even like yellow and all I made was one not-very-round pompom before I dispatched this lonesome yellow ball back home in the first shipment!

I just love this contrast – electric blue (yes it isn’t really a true purple) and a luscious green

Both sets of pompoms by the natural pool with all the frogs (only at night – where are they in the day?)

So I have made 13 but couldn’t bring myself to make any more. Really, I need to throw away this new set but it was sooooooooooo expensive! And then I happened to discover a bag of 60 mini pompoms (also not overly round!) on my trip to the Samrat Mega Store for the measly sum of 50 rupees. Each pompom cost lest that a rupee each! I strung them up and photographed them and they are off in my final shipment. Phew. Pompoms over and out.

Maroon Bangles with Five Different Craft Inserts

I have posted about the lilac glass and very breakable bangles last time. The ones in this particular project were maroon and smaller and plastic and didn’t break!

The five pieces hanging off rosewood double pin knitting needles from the lovely shutters on the Andeshe veranda

Close up.
Top left knitting, top middle crochet, top right weaving
Bottom left macrame, middle dreamcatcher

I wanted to devise a way using my trusty purple string to demonstrate five different crafts I could do in the middle but where the bangle was integral. The most obvious was the dreamcatcher as they always use a hoop! I could quite easily devise a way using crochet as you hook your yarn, I could just as easily hook around the bangle to start and finish. Next up was macramé which again often uses a pole for the beginning and end. And weaving would need a frame anyway so this was easy!

The dreamcatcher caught in a brace of spirals

The crochet maroon bangle in part of a spiral

This left knitting which is my favourite hobby. I worked out a way which was rather clumsy. Ordinarily I would have looked this up online but this was before I had a dongle making it then impossible. Funnily, the knitting one is my least favourite!

The stamps are going round the “woven” bangle

I placed in the middle of a large sheet of A3 card and used my favourite stamps in a spiral fashion around them. I photographed them on my delicious pink floor covering which is made from dyed banana fibre and then outside the veranda.

On the steps leading to the Andeshe veranda

The set on a lovely pink banana fibre mat in my room

Tassel Mobile

These are easy and super quick to make. Also, the veranda here at Andeshe is very large and so I can hang this up all the time whilst I am here. It keeps company with my small woven spiral hanging and the purple key-ring mobile made in Hampi. It has since been joined by a spiral paper cut out mobile – to be featured in a later blog!

Taken just before sunrise outside my room at Andeshe

At the Samrat Mega Craft Store in downtown Pune, I yet again went mad collecting all things purple. I had to buy all the tassels in pairs (the rules!) and wasn’t sure what to do with them. I also had these rather pretty pale lilac cloth flowers that not only would fit in between the tassels as there were six of them and seven tassels (prime!) but also ensure the tassels stayed well-spaced apart. I used one of the lacy tapes from Anegundi to hold up the banana leaf pole.

Taken in the same place from the opposite direction to clearly see the tassels and fabric wired flowers

Water Based Photographs from Hampi

On my way from the tuk tuk to the start of my coracle boat ride

There is no denying it. Everywhere you look around Hampi it is stunningly beautiful with so many huge and magnificent boulders. They were just there every waking moment. Colossal and imposing. I am sure they could tell a story or two!

Boulders and temples are juxtaposed everywhere in Hampi

These are a short series of photographs based around water. One evening I took a coracle ride to see otters but instead saw successful fishermen/people and wonderful birds flying in formation all in the same direction and sometimes with the moon as the backdrop.

Going in a low tunnel in this very flat boat – a bit like being on a doughnut without a hole!

Anegundi was connected to Hampi via two river crossings. Each small boat would shuttle backwards and forward charging 20 rupees per person per crossing and 20 for a bike. This could be a pedal bicycle or a rather large motor bike. They could fit at least four motorbikes on at one time. And this boat could not have a deep hull as the river was really shallow. This meant my trip out was in a coracle (round boat) which is what the fishermen used too.

The birds in formation across a purply sky

Unfortunately the birds are slightly out of focus but you can see the moon

On one return boat trip I spied a spray of water and knew if I circumvented it I could find a rainbow at some point going around it.

A spray to the left and rainbow on the right

6^th Chakra – third eye

Breathing in all the good and exhaling out all the bad. Let go of any expectations you have. Start to relax the body, the mind and just be present.

Breathe in light, breathe out tension, breathe in love, breathe out fear.

This chakra is located is between your eye brows. It is the seat of your intuition – your third eye. It is a place of knowing. When in balance you are able to see all things clearly. You trust yourself and that the universe is guiding you to manifest your best life.

Let these be your affirmations

My mind is clear and focussed

I listen to my intuition

I am connected to my higher self

I trust that the universe is guiding me to my best life

I live in the light of my truth

Take a moment to sit and be still. Be calm today going forward.

During this period from aged 35 to 42, I was very much a mother to three small children. We had cats and Jake the dog. It was hellishly busy but I always wanted a fourth child but try as we might this never happened. This was the end of my days as a registrar. One funny story from then was being crash called to resus at night. As I entered the hospital something made me look down and horror of horrors, I was wearing my bra on the outside of my clothes. A lucky escape! I had completed my doctoral thesis and been appointed a consultant paediatrician with a major commitment to teaching. Wonderful and fulfilling.

Signing off as I need to prepare for my last craft shopping trip. But first there is running with Johnny the adolescent dog here. We are often accompanied by Jack who is the old timer here (another dog!). Then it is yoga and a swim in the natural pool. Last night I had a good peer at all the frogs who clearly hoof off whilst croaking loudly before I make my morning entrance. I have made some recordings but I cannot seem to upload sound files!

And of course breakfast. I have been making banana/oats/milk/dates smoothie every morning – just like they have in Bear and Wolf! Gosh I miss all that fabulous coffee. Bring it on! I think I will be at Bear and Wolf (https://www.bearandwolfcafe.com/) or Campbell and Syme (https://campbellandsyme.co.uk/) at 0730 on 2nd March and then at 0800 at Cricks Corner (https://www.cricksand.co/) the very same morning. I think I will just spend the day floating around coffee shops before I think about tackling my NHS email. Oh let’s hope my password has expired…..