Our friends closed on a house last month and had "Grih-pravesh" pooja on July 4th. The pooja mahurat was in the morning, and the ceremony was beautifully performed by pundit-ji.
The house itself is beautiful - the layout is open, and the sense of space when you enter is kind of liberating! Rooms are laid out well, to afford privacy and movement at the same time. And the yard is huge, and there is pre-wired media room upstairs. There are plenty of north-facing windows so there is plenty of natural light. Absolutely lovely!
For a housewarming present I wanted to get something traditional so I shopped for Ganesha wall hangings at Indian stores in Dallas and Plano. Choice was limited and the prices were exorbitant, no kidding. And the one plaque I liked had chipped corners. Which is understandable given that the pieces are all made in India and then shipped halfway across the world. But that is not a good gift, no!
So I painted a Ganesha for them - for good luck & new beginnings!
Google-ing "Ganesha stencils" yields thousands of results for you to choose from. I did not want to use too many colors and gaudy it up, so stuck to the auspicious maroon and gold combination.
Painting the Ganesha took some time - since it was light color on dark fabric. It took 4 coats of paint before the maroon stopped to show. I lined the painted piece with another of the same fabric, so the maroon rectangle is two layers (right sides together, stitch most of it, clip corners and turn it right side out.) The top stitch border looks good too.
Then fixed it to a 8x10 canvas and embellished with some glitter, 'jewels' and tape. Fabri-tac rocks :) Framing is easy these days, since transparencies are easily available. So you don't need to bother with the fragility of glass.
Along with this I included two posterized pictures of their six year old - I took those when we visited the lake on the memorial day weekend. I hope those make a good addition to their collection of wall art :)
And it would just not be fair if I did not include a present for the youngest owner of the house!! For him I made a bunting with his name on it -
The letters are cut out from crafting felt, and sewn on to 8x6 inch rectangles. The whole bunting is approx. 35 inches wide (from a - y).
While making the bunting I discovered that a)bauhaus 93 is a good font for felt letters; and b) a bunting is a great gift for anyone - you can personalize it the way you like, as much as you like; and your stash of scraps can be mixed-n-matched.
Another bunting for the sister is already on my list. But I don't think she'll like her name on it. More on that later.
The house itself is beautiful - the layout is open, and the sense of space when you enter is kind of liberating! Rooms are laid out well, to afford privacy and movement at the same time. And the yard is huge, and there is pre-wired media room upstairs. There are plenty of north-facing windows so there is plenty of natural light. Absolutely lovely!
For a housewarming present I wanted to get something traditional so I shopped for Ganesha wall hangings at Indian stores in Dallas and Plano. Choice was limited and the prices were exorbitant, no kidding. And the one plaque I liked had chipped corners. Which is understandable given that the pieces are all made in India and then shipped halfway across the world. But that is not a good gift, no!
So I painted a Ganesha for them - for good luck & new beginnings!
Google-ing "Ganesha stencils" yields thousands of results for you to choose from. I did not want to use too many colors and gaudy it up, so stuck to the auspicious maroon and gold combination.
Painting the Ganesha took some time - since it was light color on dark fabric. It took 4 coats of paint before the maroon stopped to show. I lined the painted piece with another of the same fabric, so the maroon rectangle is two layers (right sides together, stitch most of it, clip corners and turn it right side out.) The top stitch border looks good too.
Then fixed it to a 8x10 canvas and embellished with some glitter, 'jewels' and tape. Fabri-tac rocks :) Framing is easy these days, since transparencies are easily available. So you don't need to bother with the fragility of glass.
Along with this I included two posterized pictures of their six year old - I took those when we visited the lake on the memorial day weekend. I hope those make a good addition to their collection of wall art :)
And it would just not be fair if I did not include a present for the youngest owner of the house!! For him I made a bunting with his name on it -
The letters are cut out from crafting felt, and sewn on to 8x6 inch rectangles. The whole bunting is approx. 35 inches wide (from a - y).
While making the bunting I discovered that a)bauhaus 93 is a good font for felt letters; and b) a bunting is a great gift for anyone - you can personalize it the way you like, as much as you like; and your stash of scraps can be mixed-n-matched.
Another bunting for the sister is already on my list. But I don't think she'll like her name on it. More on that later.
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