The Frozen lake #wordlesswednesday

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Linking this post to #wordlesswednesday hosted by Natasha and Esha.

Fun & Easy Crafting with Recycled Materials by Kimberly McLeod - [Book Review]

Book Details:

Title : Fun & Easy Crafting with Recycled Materials
Author : Kimberly McLeod
Genre : Children's book, Arts and Crafts
Print Length : 160 pages
Publisher : Page Street Kids
Recommended Age :6 to 11 years
Source : An advance review copy from the author

Blurb:


***INCLUDES 12 CUT-OUT TEMPLATES!***

Exciting, Eco-Conscious Crafts with Stuff You Already Have
Transform paper rolls, egg cartons, newspaper and cardboard into colorful decorations, amazing wearable masks, hats and jewelry or even sturdy desk organizers, puzzles and paint palettes. Get ready to unleash your imagination with 60 unique crafts―with something for all ages―including:

Homemade Kaleidoscope
Build Your Own Marble Maze
Cool Superhero Mask
Dinosaur Terrarium
Indoor Mini-Garden
Awesome Cardboard Castle

Kimberly McLeod, creator of The Best Ideas for Kids®, provides a varied selection of budget-friendly, eco-conscious projects that are great for imaginary play, bedroom decorations, gift giving and more! You’ll be so proud of the projects you’ve created and customized with your own hands―and they are as fun to make as they are to play with!

My Review :

A wonderful book I say, to engage kids for hours and hours. There are around 60 cool projects that kids can do with simple, easily available and recycled materials like paper scraps, cardboard, toilet paper rolls, ice pop sticks etc.,

Both of my kids aged 5 years and 8 years really loved each and every craft in the book. The photos with detailed instructions are helpful to make the craft. 

My sons tried Weather puzzle with ice pop sticks, three season tree with paper scraps and a hand fan with ice pop sticks. All were easy and they could do without help/ supervision.Crafts with egg cartons are super cute. 

Here are some of the crafts I loved from the book:

Yes, we have many to try yet. Good fun activity for a few days after school and the homework.

My Rating: 5/5

I loved this book and I recommend to all the parents of kids who encourage creativity. 

PS: I have received this advance review copy from the author and this is my honest opinion of the book.

Purchase Link:

Amazon

Until next time,

The Mahasiddha Field by Dwai Lahiri - Cover Reveal

~ Cover Reveal ~ 

The Mahāsiddha Field

by Dwai Lahiri

About the Book:

The world of Asuras and Dévas is considered mythological. Indian mythology is replete with tales of Dévas battling the Asuras constantly. The interesting thing to note is that whether it is a God or an incarnation of a deity in human form, aka an Avatār, there was also a human element involved in these stories. The teachers of the Dévas (gods) and the Asuras were human sages, known as Rishis.



Find out what happens when seemingly unconnected individuals get drawn into a world of suspense and action, as mythology collides with their world in the book 'The Mahāsiddha Field', the first in a new sci-fi/fantasy series!



An elderly wandering mendicant in South India, two young Indian-American men, two soldiers from the Indian Army and a mysterious sage from high up in the Himalayas are thrown together in an adventure unlike any other; as a most unlikely adversary leaps out of the world of Indian Mythology to challenge their beliefs, their sanity and their courage.





About the Author:

Dwai is a long time practitioner of the Daoist internal arts with a focus on Taijiquan. He is also an eager student and practitioner of Advaita Vedānta, Kashmir Shaivism and Yoga. He enjoys being part of the artistic process in various forms - as a writer, musician and a martial artist. The Arts are an excellent medium for spiritual practice and he has dedicated more than two decades of his life in the quest for spiritual clarity.



He started writing in the early 2000s in the public domain, under the pen name ‘Rudra’ for ‘sulekha.com’, which then was the preeminent online literary portal for the Indian Diaspora.  In 2007 he started the online journal ‘The Medha Journal’ where over 1000 articles---the compiled work of 96 authors including himself are available for readers today, on various topics ranging from Indic studies, philosophy to poetry and fiction.



In the worldly domain, he is a software engineer for a Silicon Valley software company, and an engineer by training. He likes to think of himself as humble bridge between many disparate worlds-- science and spirituality, art and technology, Eastern and Western cultures.



 He lives in the suburbs of Chicago in Illinois, USA with his wife, daughter and two dogs.



Contact the Author:

Blog * Twitter * LinkedIn * Quora




Until next time,

Sprinkled with Snow #ThursdayTreeLove

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Linking this post to #ThursdayTreeLove blog hop hosted by Parul.

A beautiful sculpture #wordlesswednesday

Did you see how beautifully this sculpture is created? As if the boy is actually pouring water over his head ? This pic was taken at Princeton, New Jersey a few years ago. My entry for this week's #wordlesswednesday 🙂

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Linking this post to #wordlesswednesday hosted by Natasha and Esha.

My Gratitude List for October 2019 #GratitudeCircle

This is my Thank you note for the last month which has been wonderful. We had a birthday celebration at home and I got a lot of free time, especially Me time. 

Here are the things that I am grateful for in October :

Birthday Celebration :

We celebrated the birthday of our younger son at home. Earlier, I used to feel nervous arranging parties at home and talking to guests, but now-a-days, I am enjoying these parties more.

Kids enjoyed playing with play-doh and I enjoyed arranging everything for the play-doh party. I shopped various tools like cutters, shapes to mold the play-doh to different shapes. 

Netflix :

I had an amazing time in October watching many shows and movies on Netflix. I took a break from work and so, got more time to enjoy the quality shows of Netflix.

Here is a post about our favorite shows on Netflix to watch with kids.

I loved 'Dark' which is a mystery, 'The Haunting of Hillhouse' which is an emotional drama and horror, 'Riverdale', a drama and many thriller movies like 'The Ritual'.

Me time :

I could blog more in October and read books. Here are some of my recent reviews:

Hallowed Ground is a mystery and fantasy, which I loved. 

The palace of Illusions is the best book that I have read recently as I love mythology. Chitra Banerjee is my favorite author from the time I read her book "Before I visit the Goddess".

I have learnt a lot about social media strategies in October and experimented with Pinterest and Instagram more. Thanks to the tips from Shailaja V, I have also improved on creating graphics with Canva.

I couldn't travel anywhere though and couldn't get time to paint. 

Teaching Dance :

This time of the year is our Annual Diwali event in Colorado Springs. I took this opportunity to teach Dance to 8 year old kids' group a Odisha folk song. It was a lot of fun of course. 

Kids looked amazing in the final event and everyone danced without forgetting anything. 

Cooking :

Even though I don't enjoy cooking, I had nice opportunities to love it in October. I bought an instant pot and experimented a lot. Biryani, Pasta, Ghee, Spinach Dal, Mutton curry - the list goes on.. and my experiments are continuing. The Instant pot is worth the money and Iam thankful to all the cooking videos available on Youtube to cook with instant pot.

I have also started OPOS method of cooking and I am experimenting with this style as well. Read more about OPOS cooking here.

So, that's it about my October. How was yours? 

Happy November to you all. 

In the next week, we have Thanksgiving break here, so more family time and fun for us. I am not much interested in shopping, but if you are, check this post on Black Friday shopping tips. 

Until next time,

Linking this post to #GratitudeCircle hosted by Vidya Sury.

The Aberrant Sword by Rebecca Ripley - Book Excerpt

Purchase link:
Amazon



Excerpt :

My head is pounding. My last few braincells are playing death metal drums in my skull. I try to open my eyes, but I feel like all energy has been drained from every fibre of my body.

It is the warmth that hits me first. Is that a blanket covering me? No, it isn’t. It is much shorter. I whimper as I try to open my eyes again. “Mom”? I whisper, trying to make sense of the situation, trying to get to grips with what happened.

My hands try to grab the blanket and touch warm leather. My eyes shoot open as a whiff of an unfamiliar cologne sets me on edge. I can now clearly see a little battery powered heater next to me and I do not recognise the black leather jacket covering my shoulders.

I try to sit up and recognise the ceiling of the ship’s ballroom. I let my eyes focus on the large mermaid lounging between the shells that is painted in a gold leaf frame. But we are high up. I am on one of the balconies overlooking the ballroom. “Gina?” I ask with a rasping voice, trying to find my cousin. She’s a blabbermouth. She would be all over me by now. Where is she?

That’s when my eyes were pulled to the shadow behind the heater. To the thing stirring in the shadows. My survival skills kick in. Fight or flight. I try to grab something to defend myself, my hands and fingers looking for a cold piece of metal or maybe a big shard of glass.

And then it steps out of the shadows. He is tall. I would even call him handsome. He is probably not much older than me but it’s his glowing red eyes that have me scuttle backwards, almost knocking over the heater. My heart is beating in my chest as I see some scrap metal in the corner of my eye.

I throw off the leather jacket and roll onto my side, lunging towards what was to become my only chance of defending myself. My fingers close around the cold and rusty surface when I feel the metal escape my touch.

For a second I stare at the boy pulling it from my grip, fast as lightning. My hands grab his trousers as I try to launch myself up and towards him, hands ready to take him by the throat. But that is when I feel the sharp pain in my ankle, forcing me down onto the makeshift bed again.

The boy looks at me and scoffs. “Another bleeding hunter. Oh joy.” He looks down at me and pulls a little old stool from where he was sitting in the shadows before I woke up. “If I wanted to kill you, I would have done so by now. Don’t you think?” He says, staring at me with his jaw clenched. “I have literally not a single shred of interest in fighting you. Especially not as I saved you from drowning not thirty minutes ago.” He rolls his eyes and sighs. “Although I am already pretty sorry I did that.”

Until next time,

Chimney Rock, Nebraska #WordlessWednesday

Until next time,

Linking this post to #wordlesswednesday hosted by Natasha and Esha.