DIY Clock for your Valentine

"Love is in the air" , or must I say "Love is in the heart", Uff oh,"Don't take it literally!" says Mr.Gentle Heart.

Yes, Mr.Gentle Heart is gentle as a feather, caring like a mother, lovable like a baby, charming like a knight in shining armor, benign as a king and as funny as a buffoon. Wow, Could I not get anymore simile's?

 He's made my life fun from the time I've met him. Today , I can proudly say that He is my best friend for life.

The foundation of unconditional love is trust. Without a good foundation, your construction might topple anytime. And then you are left with nothing. This is what we all learn from relationships every day, isn't it?

Having written these words of wisdom, I would like to wish my valentine, my love, my soulmate , "A very happy Valentines day".  This is for you, with love.

So you wanna give some gift to you valentine and are bored of the same old chocolates, flowers, jewellery, cakes and other same old things. So here's your chance to surprise your sweetheart. Yes, you can make them a personalized clock. (I know its too late to do this now, but you can do it for your next valentines day or rather give it as a b'day gift. Didn't want to spoil the surprise to my hubby. Hence I'm late in posting this. Sorry!) Here's how:

Materials required: Thin cardboard , old/inexpensive alarm clock, toilet paper tube(Your right, preserve these!), glue, materials to decorate like felt pen/paint/stickers/crayons(anything you like)  ,cello tape, scissors, tape(satin, crape or anything at hand)and of course your creativity.

Cut out a heart shape from the cardboard. Stick a white sheet over it if necessary. Make a small hole in the center of it through which the motor of the alarm will be inserted.    

Now make any decoration on it, like I did this one. I painted over it with red. I then pasted few stickers on it and did some free hand drawing in black. Other option is that you could paste a picture of you together, draw some cartoons , or write something to represent each hour. Just use your creativity and explore all possibilities. 

Now take any tape, make frills like I've done in this picture and paste it from behind. I had a cotton cloth. I cut out a very long piece from it and did this. Cotton/crape paper is easier to make frills than satin. If your using satin tape then prior to sticking it on the heart cardboard make the frills using stapler instead of glue.



Now take an old alarm clock or buy some inexpensive alarm clock. Remove the motor part of it.








Next remove all the hands on the alarm. Do remember in which order you need to put it back.




Next place the motor on the behind of the cardboard so that its center coincides with the hole on the cardboard and glue it or use cello tape to hold it. Now screw in all the hands of the alarm from the front side in the right order .

Now you need to use something to support it so that it can stand straight. I used a toilet paper tube. Pressed it on one side and used cello tape to glue it just below the motor.Cover the lower portion of it with any tape.I have placed some heavy stones on the bottom of the tube behind it so as to balance the weight of the cardboard. The finished product is like this.

Ain't it Swell? Hope Mr. Gentle Heart likes it!

And here's the little fella who's in a race with his dad to steal my heart everyday!!

Love you both.

Few Things

Christmas, as a kid was so exciting for me. Not that it is less exciting now! But, back then, I remember my friends in the neighborhood would give us plum cakes and all kinds of sweets and savories. I can still feel the taste tingling on my tongue as I am typing:) Haan, The good ol' days.

Happy Christmas To you, my friends.

My Boy seems to be everywhere in the house. Especially in the closets, under the tables, bathroom, kitchen, tiny space between the couch and wall.  Wonder why do most kids love such wierd places at home. If adults want to lie on the couch, kids love playing under the couch.


 Im gonna melt, if you keep looking at me that way.

Its probably the best time to do some crocheting.

Made these socks for my li'l boy. He loved them.

See what Momma made for me.

The other day, As I got up, As I came to the window, I saw HIM.

HE blessed  me.

He keeps ensuring that HE's always there for me.

Cute things come in small packages.

And those 2 packages seem to bond so well.

"Look , what a pleasant day it is!"

"I know, We should come out here more often"

"U look super cute in this dress! "

"And so do U [blush blush]"

"Where did you buy that hat?"

"Near my place, My folks bought it"

"Im gonna tell Momma to buy me one."

Do you think they could have had this conversation? Donno what kids speak to each other? I just wondered.

An anniversary cake for our dear friends Shachi and Vinay.

Think I scared them with the blood red topping instead of love-love red. (Whatever love-love means!)

To everyone whom I give a cake:

Bear with me. You may like it or not. I'l try until I get the flawless piece of cake.
Thankyou.

Nevertheless, the fondant puppy looked cute. Puppy Love, ain't it?

Ever seen a more exquisite eyelashes?

Here, he has them.

Lucky He.

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn.

DIY Chocolate Covered Gulab Jamoon Pops

Its winter time guys, and its soo very cold nowadays. Feel like sipping a hot cuppa chai every now and then. Year end is so special for us. In November being Ankush's birthday and december being our wedding anniversary. Yes, We celebrated our 4th year anniversary recently.

Four Years!!

Happy four years !

Happy four years and a cute lil boy who is a year old!!

Phewwwww. So much in four years. No, I won't say it just feels like yesterday that I got married.

                I did think of baking a special cake for our day, but we have had too much of cake recently. So thought of making hubby's favorite Gulab Jamoon. It's been long time since I did this one. Just as I started making these , an idea struck me. "Why not make Gulab Jamoon Pops?" Yes, I have seen people making cake pops, So very unprepared, I started to make these pops. Since it was the first time  I would be trying , just made 4 of them . This is how it's made.

                Ok! For the Pops, all you need is dry gulab jamoons, chocolate (white or milk, whichever you prefer), stuff to decorate(optional), toothpick/lollipop sticks, thermacol.

First you need to make dry gulab jamoon and refrigerate it. Once its refrigerated for about an hour, take a toothpick, dip it into melted chocolate , and insert it into the dry gulab jamoons. Now you need to refrigerate it again enough to harden the chocolate. This is so that the toothpick stands firmly.

Note: While melting chocolate, do not add water or milk . Just melt it as it is. If you want to thin it down just add few drops of oil/shortening to it. I just sprinkled few drops of water, which I shudn't have done.


Next step is to dip the jamoon in melted chocolate as shown .  Lightly tap it against the vessel to remove all the excess chocolate.      

Believe me!  There's nothing heavenly than melted hot chocolate:) Yummmm.

After this, You can roll it over crushed pistachios, almonds or cashews as per your taste. You can follow this step if you aren't interested in decorating it. You can also probably serve it with ice cream.

Take a piece of thermocole and insert the toothpick on it. Refrigerate it to harden the chocolate. It is then ready to eat. See ,wasn't that easy?

Decorating the pops are totally optional. There are millions of ways to decorate them. I did some simple decoration. Here I used white fondant to give it some character.

U can even do this using white chocolate. Mixing food colours with white chocolate and running it threadlike on these pops also look wonderful.

Few other Variations.

There you now know how to make them:) It taste sooo yummy. Trust me on this.

Anybody want a bite??


Update: Better to use semi sweet chocolate to balance the sweetness of the gulab jamoon