Diya decoration

Diyas (Lamps, Vilakku) are extensively used during Deepavali (Diwali) and Karthigai Deepam festivals. It is made out of different materials like glass, terracotta, mud, porcelain, plastic, brass, silver, etc. The one which I used here is a glass bowl and the Diya inside the bowl is made of plastic and was readily available in the shops during Diwali. They are called floating Diyas or floating lamps. It is floating Diya. I have filled the glass bowl with water and added rose petals to give it an auspicious and festive look. I have filled the Diya with oil and lighted it using a medium sized wick.

Flowers

These are some of the pictures of beautiful flowers that we captured in our camera.

Marapachi Dolls

Another set of Marapachi dolls decorated in a different style. This is how these dolls looked before decoration. They are actually one of the smallest of sizes available.

Before decoration:

The dolls looked really very cute after decoration.

After decoration:

The girl's hairstyle, a simple plait decorated with some tiny flower billais. Billais are ornaments used to decorate the hair.

Kolams (kolam 2)

Kolam 2

This is a pulli kolam. Pulli means dot. This kolam can be drawn in both your front yard and the pooja room. I will create and share two simple video tutorials below to help beginners who are new to kolams on how to keep the dots for this kolam (first video) and then the second video on how to draw the kolam pattern (will upload later).

Ishwarya Kolam

Ishwarya Kolam

Kolam or rangoli are designs or patterns drawn in India in the front yard of the house or inside the pooja room. They are an integral part almost in every household. They are considered both auspicious and also used as decorative aspect during festivals or every day. For every day, a simple kolam is drawn but during festivals large kolams are drawn. They are drawn using dots (pulli or chukke) and then interconnecting those dots to make a beautiful pattern. They are mostly logical in design.

It is a welcome symbol and also a tradition that is followed since ages in India.

Ishwarya kolam is a kolam or rangoli drawn on Fridays in the pooja room. It is considered as auspicious to draw this kolam in the pooja room. Ensure that you do not draw it on your front yard because it is sacred and people should restrain from stamping it. You could draw it rice flour (arasi maavu or akki ittu) if you are comfortable drawing using it. Or else you could use a white chalk piece to draw this kolam. Here, I have drawn it on a paper using a sketch pen.

Keep visiting this blog for more kolams :)

Marapachi Doll Decoration

Marapachi dolls are also known as marapachi bommai or marapachi gombe. I have posted a picture of the Marapachi doll after decoration. Every South Indian household will have a pair of these dolls. It is made of wood. It is a must in every Kolu during Dasara season. These dolls are available generally in various sizes. The one I have posted below in the picture is of 10 inches height. Different people decorate according to their own creativity. It was fun and had a great time decorating these dolls. Hope you liked the decoration.

Marapachi doll

Beautiful Flowers

Some pictures of flowers that we captured in our camera.

Drawing design using Mehendi/Marudhaani

Some marudhaani/mehendi designs tried during leisure.

This is how mehendi or marudhaani looks when you initially draw it on your hand using a cone. You can make these cones at home if you have mehendi powder or plant. If you do not have it at home, you could buy these cones from any mehendi stores but you should make sure they are fresh ones otherwise they will not be good. You could spray Eucalyptus oil all over the design after you have drawn it. It will enhance the color and the design will stay longer on your palms. :)

This is how the design looks after you wash it off your palms:

This is a picture before removing or washing the mehendi paste off my palms. It looks oily because I have sprayed eucalyptus oil on it:

This is another picture of the mehendi design that I drew on my hand:

Hope you liked this post. Do post your comments and feedback. :)