Grug

Grug is an Aussie frictional character and I love it. The existence of this creature was unknown to me until last week when one of our colleague mentioned it.  I googled it yesterday eating my rice and curry lunch druing lunch break and now it is on my favourite cartoon list.

I have been living here for over 10 years and I get little excited when I see a 100% Aussie stuff. With the markets overflowing with Chinese products and television full of American production Grug is such a releif as it was created in our own backyard. Created by Ted Prior in 1979 Grug is a little funny guy and looks like a haystack with a face. Ted lived with  his two young children in a small farm in New South Wales and while reading them stories he came up with an imgainary bush animal and that is how Grug was created. There are series of books you can buy and here is the link to the website  http://www.mygrug.com/ if you want to find out more about Grug. While I go and look for a book to buy enjoy this grug cartoon

I Want to be a Child Again!

I want to be a little child again! I want to feel the same excitement as walking to the school for the first time. The love for my school uniform- green blazer which had my name ' Seema' inscribed in the inside pocket and I used to show it to everyone "Look! It has my name". When mum used to ask me to sing nursery rhyme "I’m a little teapot" for the millionth time, I had the same energy like it was the very first time. My first pet were little tadpoles swimming in a Horlicks bottle and was little sad when they hopped away but I understood they had to get back to their mummy. My brother was my best friend and we hung out together all the time. The best memory of our friendship is sitting quietly on the porch at Grandpa’s house in the evenings waiting for the wild rabbits to appear. Every time the steam engine passed by our house we used to run to the veranda and wave at the travellers without expecting them to return our favour. It was a carefree life where happiness was found in simple things- anger was lost after one cry and forgiveness was easy because I was a child.

Dikyi Ukyab has my vote!

Dikyi Ukyab is my favourite artiste at the moment. My aunt posted her video on my facebook page and since then I have been listening to her everyday. She has a lovely voice and I even requested Awaaz SA fm (Adelaide)to play her song.

Diki was born on 1 March 1991 in New York. She has been constantly travelling back and forth to Nepal and I'd say has perfect Nepali accent without any 'gora' twang. Currently she is pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Political Science and Anthropology at State University of New York (SUNY). 

Dikyi's debut album, 'Silver Lining' was released on August 7th, 2011, in Nepal and has created sensation.  Her first single 'Jaun' topped the charts at #1 on Kantipur FM and Image FM. Her second music video performing 'Ke Bhaye Ko' (directed by Araaj Keshav) recently topped at #1 on Top of the Pops (Image Channel).

I liked her FB page just now :-)  and so excited for her, she has already been nominated for so many music awards. Go Dikyi!
Here is Dikyi' song. Enjoy!

Glow in the dark nail polish

Recently my friend got me Glow in the Dark nail polish. It is amazing, I even switched off lights to show it to my friends. It will be a perfect nail polish for Halloween party. Love the colour too. Thank you Danni Pugh.

For Teej- bindi nail art

Happy Teej to all the ladies.
Teej is a Nepalese festival- The first day of Teej is called Dar Khane Din. On this day the women, both married and unmarried, assemble at one place, in their finest attire and start dancing and singing devotional songs. Amidst all this, the grand feast takes place. The jollity often goes on till midnight, after which the 24-hour fast starts.

We had a Teej-cultural program in Adelaide on staruday and I wore a pink saree I had bought for my brother's wedding. It has shades of orange and pink and heavy embroidery.

So I decided to do something traditional and simple for my nails. It is very easy and finally my own creation. I had some gold bindi (is a forehead decoration worn in India and Nepal) lying in a box. All I did was paint all my nails with a pink nailpolish, then immediately stuck the bindis onto my nails. Let it dry completely and then apply a top coat nail polish. Give a good coat around the bindis. Here is a picture of my nailart for you.

I had to wear saree and rush and I lost dimond stud attatched to the bindi and did not had time to clean around my nails but hey.. it looks pretty good. I think golden nail polish on the edge of the nails would look good too.  

Denim Nail Art

Mila Kunis wore this nair-art for her photoshoot. Saw the instructions on how to create this look and here this week's nail art. For this I used  

1. Base coat (I purchased on Friday. Looks pink but it is colourless)
2. Blue nail polish for base colour
3. White nail polish
4. Top coat nail polish.
5. Old tooth brush to apply the white paint
6. Sponge to give a blue dabbed denim look
7. Bindi (I bought a long time ago in India- to give a button look for my denim pokets)
8. White nail art pen (I used to draw stitch line)
9. Black nail art pen (for nail art on the middle finger)
10. Red nail art pen (")
11. Nail polish remover and 12) ear buds to clean up the mess.

I am copy- pasting what I found on the net- very easy step-to-step instructions. Sorry, forgot to save the link to it.

To create a denim look, I started with a dark blue base.

Then I used a small, coarse paintbrush to paint vertical and horizontal lines with white acrylic paint.

And then, to make it slightly faded, I added another layer of the blue nail polish with a sponge.

Once dry, I finished with matte top coat and added stitching details and a few studs to look like buttons.

Here is my nail art. I am pretty happy with it. Took a long time as there are so many layers to it.
Tip- be gentle when dabbing blue nail pollish with a sponge and apply less to give a white washed look. Apply nail polish to the bottom of glitter before you paste them on your nails and give a thick coat of top coat on it.

Here is a link to youtube tutorial to give you better idea.

Newspaper Nail Art

When I went to our usual catch-up dinner  with friends, I saw one of my friend had beautiful nail-art apprantly 3-D nail art. She goes to nail parlour to get it done. I was pretty sure, there ought to be something on the web. I started browsing and found a whole heap of websites for nail art. Since then I have started trying out different nail art. It is a fun world where you can play with colours and techniques. My collection of nail-polishes are growing bigger and bigger every week. I found this really cool nail art in the web and it is really easy. Anyone can do it.

You will need
Base colour- I picked grey nail polish
Rubbing alcohol  (I bought mine from pharmacy)
Top coat nail-polish
Newspaper

Paint your nails with base colour and let it dry completely.
Then dip your nail in rubbing alcohol for 10-15 second and immediately press newspaper into your nails. Newspaper print will transfer into your nails and then finish off with top coat. Here's picture of how my nails look.

Tip- firmly press newspaper into your nails and even out pressing it gently. I did not apply even pressure and the newsprint is not that prominent.

Here is the video to the nail art which will give you better idea. Enjoy!!!