Journey of NTW began a couple of years ago with a simple post. Over the years I shared significant pieces of my life and times with all of you on this platform. People like Shikha and Pranjali joined us for brief stunts and gave their beautiful thoughts too. You guys were awesome! Commenting, liking, sharing thoughts all the way through. You kept me going. Alas, all this comes to an end today (or technically, 7 days from now).

Yeah. NTW hosting is coming to an end and I am not thinking of continuing it.

Last year was a kind of eye opener for me. I realized that life is too short to simply exist. If I do not pursue my real dreams here and now, I might never be able to get to them at all. Oh boy, that thought is SCARY, to say the very least.

And I cannot get to my dreams by hiding behind a name like “Naari – The Woman”. Now I want to go out there and face the world being me. Just me. With all my whims, fancies, emotions, moods, love, laughter, creativity, faith – everything that makes me *ME*.

So albeit with a heavy heart I am letting go of NTW .

This is a bittersweet moment for me as I embrace a new e-place – varadasharma.com. A place which will be mine forever – for better or worse, in health and in sickness, in joy and in sorrow, in hope and in despair. I am in the planning stage for this, so I should be live about a few days from now.

As with NTW, I’ll need each one of you by my side – encouraging me with your kind words, wishing me well, at times even prodding me to go get things done if I am slacking.

You’ll do that for me, you’ll be there – won’t you?

I am counting on you…..

Thank You!!!

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I resurrected one of my very old poems from A-mused-mind and gave it some twist.

What do you think of my attempt? I think I am getting too lost in this pink+grey combo.. Girlie, but…

Can’t wait to hear your thoughts and suggestions, friends. So ….

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Anyways, being away from blogging has made me very very dissatisfied in one part of my heart, so I’ve decided to bounce back. As a ‘coming back’ gift to all of you from my side, I’ll be sharing details of a recent scrapbook project I am working on in my spare time (read minutes…).

Warning: this is the first time I am undertaking a scrapbooking project, so not sure my process is right. I am just going with what-works-for-me.

Before making full fledged pages and layouts, I’ve decided to put together various embellishments. Here’s first set of princess attire:

All these are made from paper.

	The dress: I have used thick pink color paper like the one used in greeting cards. (Do you call it cardstock?) It’s a simple evening gown cutout embellished with stones and white paper roses. I used the simple and fun tutorial by Dozi Design for making the roses. Grey and pink design is added later on the image using, what else? Photoshop!
For our princess’s make up we have (oh my I can feel the same excitement as I did when me and my friends used to dress up our dolls): a. Mirror: Again I cut the same think pink sheet (actually this is a recycled sheet from some brochure) to the shape of a compact mirror + face powder thingie. On the inside I’ve stuck a round foil paper to act as a mirror and a round off white colored paper to act as the face powder. Tiny glittering start on top are a work of PS. Lipstick and comb: Pink paper and handles wrapped in foil paper. Shoes (my fav.): Pink and dark pink colored paper cutout adorned with stone and a thick thread bow. The grey swirls are again PS.
	Accessories: I drew a tiny tiara and glued the thick thread tracing the line. Embellished in between the loops with pink and white stones. The bracelet is a simple ring adorned with stones. Earrings and pendant are again tiny metal rings from my jewelry chain maille collection on which I’ve hot glued matching pink and white stones.

I then took my hybrid scrapbooking project (is there even such a thing?) to another level. Combining these images with my older princess’s snaps, I made the following layout:

What do you think?

Would you to create something like this with your baby’s pictures? Is there some way I can help? Do let me know

As always, thanks for dropping by @ my e-place.

Cheers,
~Varada

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Thanks for being my friend!

~Varada

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My friend Billy has this amazing blog called “inMessment – Life Investment” on which he has listed the following words because these are things he is passionate about.

• FAITH
• FAMILY
• FINANCE
• FREEDOM
• FUNCTION

Now that triggered this post about the letter ‘F’. Isn’t this letter just Fantastic? Fabulous? I mean just think about the words beginning with ‘F’

Some happy or important words

1. Faith (My number one. I am nothing if not for my Faith in my Kanhaji.)
2. Family
3. Friends
4. Freedom
5. Food
6. Fun
7. Flora
8. Fauna
9. Flowers
10. Fruits
11. Frolic
12. Females (oh yes!)
13. Future
14. Feast
15. Function
16. Finance
17. Fantastic
18. Fabulous
19. Farm
20. Fresh
21. Fish (very important for ecological balance)
22. Fox (same as above)
23. Fat (some of you might argue this should be in the second list below…)
24. Fit
25. Figs (Yummm)
26. Fast
27. Famous
28. Force
29. Fetus
30. Feni (it’s a wine made from Cashew fruit. It is made in Goa!)
31. Football
32. Fly (the insect and the verb)

And it has got some bad ones too…

1. Foe
2. Famine
3. Fool
4. Furious
5. Fatal

and one of the most used swear words

1. F***! (I never thought I would put this on my blog. Ever. But here it is!!!)

I am sure this list is not exhaustive. There are several more out there which are missing my brain right now. Could you help with a few?

(See, I caught one – “Few”!!!)

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Allow your toddler to express themselves via their interests.  They might discover a creative outlet in theatre, dancing or art, or they may possibly be exceptionally talented within the sciences.  Encourage them to embrace what they like to do, what interests them, and what makes them happy.  Aid them realize that they don’t need to worry about being ‘like everyone else.

Teach your child to make good alternatives, and praise them for very good deeds, behaviors and positive traits they possess.  Encourage them to become actively involved in their community, and introduce them to activities that promote a sense of cooperation and accomplishment.  Be firm yet fair when handing down discipline for misdeeds or misbehaviors, and make particular the rules and consequences for breaking the rules are clearly defined.  Display a cooperative, loving and united front with your spouse when it comes to discipline.

If you are a new father or mother, you’ll no question have your hands full. And as a new mother or father, your name and address has no question discovered its way on to a parent mailing list or new parent mailing list. Marketing corporations frequently collect your info to produce a new parent list, which they market to a variety of industries. Quite a few companies will send you offers in the mail for valuable products and services you may require as a new father or mother. You’ll want to watch your mailbox for these kinds of offers, as they are able to save you tons of time and money, in addition to provide you with excellent parenting ideas and tricks!

Accept and celebrate your child’s uniqueness. Remember that your baby is an individual. Permit your kid to have his or her own personal preferences and feelings, which may be different from your own.
And finally, encourage your toddler to be true to themselves by doing the same.  Display your child how to make positive alternatives with the selections you make, and that nobody is perfect and you too make mistakes.  Display your toddler that mistakes can be a good learning experience, and that they ought to not be ashamed or embarrassed about making them.

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First, you’re donating an older car that is no longer running, feasible or needed. By donating the car, it can be used to create new materials instead of decaying and continuing to negatively impact the environment. Donated cars that are still running and can be resold it can go to someone in need of transportation that may not be able to afford a newer model car and not go to waste in a junk yard. Green charities that have vehicle donation programs are the perfect place to take your unwanted vehicle. The donated car will be properly recycled and the proceeds will go towards helping the charity continue its mission of improving the quality of the planet and maintaining its resources

The trend towards more fuel efficient cars can also be seen in the decline and in some cases death of more outdated cars. The hummer for instance is a prime example. The large gas guzzler has been discontinued as of this year. A fate brought on by a weak economy, high fuel costs and the rise of the green movement. Help keep the green car donation movement going, by donating your old car. The proceeds from donated cars will go towards charities that are also trying to improve the state of our world and the remnants will be used to produce cleaner resources.  

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Lying hopeless in the hospital? Blaming fate and God for all the bad things happening to you? Feeling dejected and depressed? Angry? Hurt?

Read on…

Location: Pushpanjali Crosslay Hospital, Vaishali – bed number 322. I am with my one month old daughter who has been admitted for pertussis / pneumonia. It’s a twin-sharing room so another family joins us on bed number 321 the night before our discharge.

The patient is a middle aged woman, I’ll call her “Prerna”. As we start exchanging our stories, she tells me, “I lost my mom when I was very young. My dad expired a few days ago. I don’t have any kids. We’ve been married for 11 yrs. Tried all sorts of medicines etc to help conceive,  but no luck. However I am lucky to have my husband. He is a god-sent man. Men (specially in India) treat women very badly when they cannot bear a child. Even when the problem is with the man’s health, the woman will always be blamed and punished for not being able to have kids. But my husband loves me no matter what. He treats me with respect and kindness. After all whatever is happening to me is Allah’s wish. I am sure he does have something good for me, too.”

I was moved to tears. Here was a woman who had all the reasons to spread hatred and ill-will, sorrow and dejection but she chooses to do otherwise. Instead of wallowing in self-pity, indulging in sorrow, she counts her blessings. She recognized the kindness in her husband, was thankful for him and asked blessings for him. She continued to pray and chant her routine prayers even when nurses came over to administer IV injections or fluids. Whole night she went through blood transfusion which was quite an ordeal, but she bore it with a very brave heart. Morning she was sitting in her bed and praying as per her ritual again. She had not let adversity disturb her faith in God for the last several years. I was stumped by her courage.

“Prerna”, meaning inspiration – what else can you name her?

p.s. The doctors operated on our dear Prerna didi successfully yesterday and also did tests on the growth in the liver. It was found to be non-cancerous. Do send your prayers and wishes for her speedy recovery!

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I found it one stop shop for parents. Some of the highlights I find useful are:

1. Weekly newsletter during PGcy kept me up-to-date on “what’s-happening-with-my-baby”, advice about what best to eat / avoid when, what possible symptoms to watch for, what exercises / activities to take up etc.
2. Medical conditions, their symptoms, possible causes and things you can do to reduce / avoid them – This second PGcy was a really rough ride for me. Low b.p., excruciating lower back pain, infections – you name it, I had it. At least knowing more about what was happening to me, why and how I could ease some of the pain helped a lot.
3. Forums / community – For each article they have comments from community members. women share their experiences, give tips and advice and overall boost each other’s spirit.

They also have offers from diapers.com etc but I did not use these, so no comments there.

So if you are a trying-to-be parent, would-be parent or having kids & toddlers go take a look at this great site. It’s worth spending some time on!

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Please give your blessings and best wishes for our little angel

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