The little thing called Maya

Last march I had written a very personal but sad post on my life then. I mentioned about my struggle with weight and the empty child shaped hole in my heart.

A year later. Things are much different. I am still over weight , however the hole in my heart is filled by my little angle Maya.

It all started a little over a year ago, when we applied for adoption at a local charitable trust in bangalore. Adoption in India is a long drawn process and has known to take up to three to four years. We went through the motions of filling out the paper work, social worker visits and attended some parent prep workshops. Then we started the long and uncertain wait for a child. I was losing hope by the minute and by December beginning , it was all but over in my mind. I was moving on and planing new things, A life of being childless but successful in “something”.

It took a phone call to change it all.

On 12.12.12 me and my good friend decided to celebrate the day by going shopping. Nothing like a good dose of retail therapy, right? So we hit the shops, grabbed some lunch and came home for some rest before we started round two in the late afternoon. At around 2.15 , I picked the phone to make another call when it rang. The conversation was something like this.

SW : hey rashmi , it’s SW here.
ME : hey…. How r u?
SW : So there is a child available , it’s a baby girl , she is is 8 months old. When can you come and see here
( By this time , I froze, I mean hot and cold at the same time, going crazy, cant think, going mad kinda state )
ME : aaaaa. Ok. I’ll just talk to my husband and get back.
SW: ok sure . Please get back soon.
Me : yeah yeah. Sure.

I made frantic calls to my husband… And as luck would have it … The calls would not go through… So I sent an SMS asking him to call me back . He called and we rushed to the trust office.

To cut a long story short. We met our daughter at 4 30. Pm. In the matter of minutes , my life changed. I was a mother. We were parents and we had a daughter.She was Maya. That’s that.

We brought her home on the 14th, and our lives has never been the same ever since.

Maya is our joy and fills our hearts with her toothy smile and giggles. She keeps me on my toes.

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At almost 11 months , she is walking with support , teething some more and babbling away to glory. She has a preference of eating sweets and love pealing onions and eating onion peels. Trust me , that child is funny. She is always upto some mischief and is on the look out of one.
She loves her blocks and my kitchen utensils. She sleeps through the night and waves her daddy TA TA.

We just lover her

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In other news. We purchased a another flat in the same building we live. It’s a another bedroom and just perfect.

I’ll be sharing more about it on Monday. Yes, that means, I am back to blogosphere. In the next few months, I will be sharing my DIY projects and how I plan to make this our home.

Before I wish you folks A happy weekend here is the pic of my two favourite people.

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Love
Rashmi.

Washi tape dispencer

I Have been a huge follower of the washi tape trend that has swept blogland and rocked the crafting world. Unfortunately washi taped were prohibitively expensive to import from abroad and were not available in India, until recently. Many independent blogshops and online Indian crafting stores have started stocking Washi tapes at very affordable rates.

Now! now! I am not endorsing any one here but am just sharing that F.I.N.A.L.L.Y ,we get the “Good stuff”.

So I ordered some online and it came, Six lovely designs of fresh washi tape that my hands were desperate to craft with. These beauties lay on my craft table and the abyss that my table it it got sucked in till the big clean up happened..you know how it is!

I was very keen on making a dispenser for my washi tapes like this

Source

However my woodworking skills are zilch!

I did have foil dispenser and box so i thought .. well its a box that has a tube in it, It has a built-in cutter and it closes, so it will keep off dust .That was it!

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I ripped up the cutting mechanisim from inside and hot glued to the outside of the box.

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I then covered the box with some fabric and lace

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For Good measure, I covered the inside tube as well

I loaded it all up

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It looks and works lie a charm!

And see how pretty it looks ]

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I love it !
Thanks
Rashmi

UPDATE : Great minds do think alike. I found that some one had beat me to this idea Here is another take on the Foil box washi tape dispenser

Happy Diwali

Happy Diwali

Wish everyone a very happy and prosperous Diwali

Wooden Drop Earrings

This is a beautifully handcrafted Pair of drop  earrings.
Blue and red
Blue and Red 1

Made from Wooden disks and beads, these light weight earrings would brighten any outfit.

Details :

length : 1.25  Inch

Weight : under 20 gms

Cost : Rs 45

Shipping  : Actuals as per DTDC estimates

Note : More designs on our facebook page

Please Note : If you are located outside of India and would like to purchase any of my products, i can create a personal etsy listing for you . Please email me at the.ochre.elephant@gmail.com  for further details

Thanks

Rashmi

My printer showed me the Light

Seven years ago we brought home an Hp HPC 1420 printer Scanner.

I was not in love with it; as time passed,  started loving and depending on this for all my work, printing furniture plans, designs, quotations and it was all good and we were the best of friends. But over the years, I started taking my little printer for granted, Not giving it the TLC it needed. It refused to print, ate up paper, just got jammed. I started hitting it, shaking it to make it work. I called it names even. I am not proud of it. Then one day It Died. That’s it NO warning, no intimation, that’s it!  D.E.A.D! Finito!

We tried everything to try to make it work but it won’t budge. We had to accept that It was over and we needed to move on. So we purchased an HP6510 printer and we are happy again. Though my printing at home resumed again, My old printer still sat there gathering dust and being sad and forlorn. Some months passed and we still were wondering what to do with the old printer.

Earlier this month we went to pune for a fortnight , The hubby was working and I was bored. We visited the Pie lane studio and I purchased some Embossing tools and stencils. This was my first try.

Love the owl.. And I knew, I was hooked. While taking to the proprietor, He suggested taping the stencil and the paper to a glass window and emboss or to use a light box.

After looking at various options to how to d.i.y a light box , I picked on my hubby’s brain. And boy! Did he have a brain wave. He said he could convert the old printer into a light box! That was it.. It was just want I wanted. Brilliant!

It was his project from start to finish and took about 2.5 hours.

This is our printer Just before my hubby got to work on it.

01 The HP 1200 Printer

First he removed the cartridges and then the front and back flaps.

02 The Cartridge

03 The Frount Flap and the BAck Flap

There were four screws holding the whole thing together. First he tried using a long handled screwdriver to unscrew it, only to realize that we needed an Alan key.

04 trying to get the blttom free

After an hour the hubby was able to take out only two screws, luckily on the two diagonal ends. Another 15 mins went by and he just lost patience and yanked the two sections apart and yes it broke.

05 Finally breaking free

The good thing was that, In spite of it being broken, because the two diagonal screws were intact, it could be put back together.

06 The broken and good thingies

Next he went on to remove the internal guts of the printer. As he progressed, he kept inspecting the parts that he could salvage and reuse like motors etc.

07 Removing the printer guts

09 Inspecting the partrs

The discarded parts were really pileing up now.

10 Discarded parts increase

Once All the printer was gutted he started work on the scanner bed.

12 The scanner bed free

The portion below the scanner was one sheet of plastic and was essential when putting it all back.

11 Finally Empty

The only work around was cutting a portion of the plastic with a small saw.

13 Hacksaw14 Hole at last

Next was installing the Light. That was the simplest bit of the whole thing. There was one of the existing steel plates of the printer. The wire was tightly wedged between two screws that adhered the plate to the bottom plastic.

15 The Bulb

Using one of the existing holes in the printer, the hubs let the wire out of the box and then added the Plug to the wire.

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He then put back the printer exoskeleton back together and added the front flap for good measure.

And then we plugged it on and there was Light!

16 Lighted up

Here It is , In use as a Light Box

17 The Light box in use

I am Loving it!

After A long break…

Hi every one.

I have missed you all. I apologize for my long absence.

The past few months have been the most trying in my life. I was unwell, I hurt my back and was hospitalized for a few weeks . The Past two months has been a long road to recovery and now i am good as new!

As I recovered , i started planning what to do in the next few months. Nothing helps me think as well as stitching and before i know it, I had whipped up two bags.
The Library toteDenim Cross Bag
Looking at them my hubby suggested i try and sell them.. After dragging my feet for many days, I finally have posted them . Do have a look Here and here .I have a few more bags in the pipeline along with a scrapbook kit.

In some other blogging and Social media updates, I finally took the Plunge and registered my domain name , I am finally http://theochrelephant.com . If you have subscribed to my RSS feed, I request you to update your feeds.

site
I Finally have a facebook page

facebook

http://www.facebook.com/TheOchrelephant

Please do Visit and “Like” the page.

I have also started scrapbooking in my own way. Will post about it soon.

Thanks

Rashmi

Flower Library Tote

The Library tote

This lightweight 100% cotton tote bags with long handles and has plenty of room to carry everything you need when you are on the go.
It has flower Applique work with coordinating Handles. The Bag Fits perfectly over the shoulder. It has a small Pocket on the inside for keeping cash/ library cards etc.
This is a great practical bag, strong enough to carry the heaviest of items but lightweight enough to fold up and put in your pocket or handbag.

Details :

Code           : OELT01

Size             : Handle Length 75cm(h)
Bag Measurements 32cm (w) by 38cm (h)

Materials : 100! Cotton
Washing : Machine washable

Washing : Rs 200 + Shipping

To purchase this bag please refer to the “The Shop “  Page .

Thank you