Halloween spooky castle

On October 30, 2015November 2, 2015 By Aruna TalapatraIn craft, event, festivalLeave a comment

This castle has been planned for a while now. We have been saving paper towel rolls, yogurt cups for a few weeks. Below is our raw material, to save on time I spray painted everything gray. Recycled to our hearts content…

We glued everything together and Nadia helped paint the walls.

Finally, our castle framework is ready!

We then created two witches to stand guard. A paper cup for a body and foam heads. Nadia painted their clothes and face.

We also cut out paper strips to make a broom.

Nadia stuck some cotton for her hair.

We made a few ghosties for our castle spires out of coffee filters and cotton. Nadia drew on their eyes.

Finally, we put them all together. What followed is an epic playtime between dinosaurs and witches and ghosties. What fun 🙂

Finally the little girl is asleep, dreaming of a T-rex that she is going to dress up as for school tomorrow.

Have a great halloween!

Cheers,

Aruna

Pumpkin carving

On October 29, 2015 By Aruna TalapatraIn craft, festivalLeave a comment

We’re having a witch fest at home…A witch banner, a witch brewing some potions for our pumpkin carving. We are also working on a fabulous castle which hopefully will be done tonight. Here’s Nayeem helping cut the pumpkin top off for us. DSCF3856

Yeah…lets start carving!

Finally all done…

Here’s how she looks on our front porch. Have a great week.

Cheers,

Aruna

Cereal box spooky house

On October 28, 2015 By Aruna TalapatraIn festivalLeave a comment

Halloween is upon us soon…Just love this time of the year. Starts with Ganpati, then EID, Durga Puja, Halloween and then Diwali. So much to paint, so little time 🙂

We used a cereal box for this one. Turned it inside out, I drew a house. DSCF3848

Nadia then painted the walls, roof, door, windows…

I cut out the windows and the door.

I used the plastic from the cereal box for the windows and drew on some halloween decorations. Folded and glued the box and voila now Nadia can carry it around.

A lighted candle inside just build the mood. Note: This is a paper box so if you use a real candle, make sure you extinguish it when not around.We are saving our cereal boxes. By Christmas we should be able to create an entire village 🙂

Have a great week.

Cheers,

Aruna

Autumn tree

On October 27, 2015 By Aruna TalapatraIn craftLeave a comment

Our fall theme continues…Nayeem spent 3 hours this past weekend clearing leaves from the yard and roof. Investing in the Billy goat industrial vacuum was the best thing ever, or this would have taken 12 hours.

Nadia painted a tree…the trunk is dark brown.

She then used a roll dipped in paint to create leaves…brown, red, yellow.

Here’s the finished version.

She then proceeded to make another abstract piece…grandma watching on 🙂We’re having a beautiful fall. Hope you are too!

Cheers,

Aruna

Water and waves

On October 25, 2015 By Aruna TalapatraIn craftLeave a comment

Water, waves….I want to paint water. Okay so here goes. DSCF3802

Mixing mainly blue and white…Nadia painted waves.

A lot of focus here 🙂

Here’s her finished version. I drew on a surfing dude and she painted him. Gotta love these collaborations.Have a great Sunday!

Cheers,

Aruna

Painting pumpkins

On October 22, 2015 By Aruna TalapatraIn craft, festivalLeave a comment

“Let’s buy a big pumpkin for carving and two small ones that I can paint”…Okay why not. As soon as we got home, Nadia changed and got started. I drew on a face on one and the letters BOO on the second. DSCF3795

Nadia loves the color black. She wants to paint everything black…so it’s a bit of an argument while painting and I also just had one tube of black paint. So she picked yellow for the eyes and mouth.

Back to black for the 2nd one! DSCF3798

These guys found a spot outside on our porch. Hopefully we can get to pumpkin carving this weekend! DSCF3809

Cheers,

Have a great week.

Aruna

Monkey bread

On October 21, 2015 By Aruna TalapatraIn foodLeave a comment

I am sure all of you must have seen the video that’s been floating around of a delicious recipe for Monkey Bread. Ever since I showed that to Nadia, she has been wanting to try some. So we got started. I rolled the dough and Nadia stuffed the balls with chocolate bits. We tossed it into a mix of cinnamon and butter and here they are.

Nadia glazed them with a mixture of heated butter and sugar.

And it then went into the oven.

They came out looking delicious!

And tasted great too with some milk.

Have a great week.

Cheers,

Aruna

Bridge over pass

On October 20, 2015 By Aruna TalapatraIn craftLeave a comment

Add more to my toy city Mama, said Nadia. So what else can we add? How about a cardboard overpass bridge for cars to travel? I cut out the cardboard bridge and glued the parts together. I drew out the outlines for her and she got started.

Nadia got busy with painting…green grass, brown mountains…She added white lines for the road.

Nadia also added little white flowers on the grass.

We then arranged it all…a toilet roll cityscape, a milk bottle home, paper trees and a two-way lane above and below the bridge.

What a great way to spend an entire afternoon…

Have a great week.

Cheers,

Aruna

She is wild, she is free

On October 14, 2015 By Aruna TalapatraIn photographyLeave a comment

Sunday evening, Nadia wanted to be an elephant…running free and wild. I painted her face and she picked a dark blue outfit, grabbed her mammoth toy and ran to the backyard. She ran, she climbed trees, she lay on the grass and had a blast. “Animals love to run long distances and feel the wind on their face” – she said in Bengali.

DSCF3670

“Did you know that elephants require vast spaces to roam, socialize, and express their natural behavior. In the wild, they live in matriarchal herds and are active for 18 hours per day, foraging for fresh vegetation, playing, bathing in rivers, and traveling as far as 30 miles a day.”

The vast majority of elephants now in zoos were taken away from their moms by force.

For the sake of elephants in captivity, zoos must phase out their elephant exhibits, abandon breeding programs, and strive to provide the elephants who are currently in captivity with a more humane existence. A day in the zoo for you, could cause a lifetime of heartache for her…she is free, she is wild.

Thought for the week 🙂

Have a great week.

Cheers,

Aruna

Mahalaya

On October 12, 2015 By Aruna TalapatraIn festivalLeave a comment

Shubho Mahalaya…Nadia had a great time on Sunday night watching “Mahishashur Mardini” with grandparents and parents. When will Maa Durga fight Mahisasur was her constant question. Mahalaya ushers in Durga puja. Nadia and I painted our interpretations of Maa Durga this weekend. Nadia wanted to show the slaying of Mahishasur (buffalo-man as she calls him), Maa Durga riding on her lion the symbol of all that is good and pure in this world.

She chose red to depict Maa Durga.