Happy Diwali Friends!!

"There's always something warm and bright about this time of the year. 

When everything has a special glow and hearts are full of cheer. 

That's why this special greeting comes your way, to wish you all life's best on this Diwali day". -unknown

Designing Life wishes you all a very Happy and Sparkling Diwali.

May you be blessed with good health, happiness & prosperity today and forever!

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Diwali Patakaa!

Diwali or Deepawali is 'festival of lights'. 

It is the biggest and brightest festival for India (similar to Christmas). 

It's the time of the year when you decorate your home on full swing. 

We love it as all our family & friends are together and celebrate with fun.

Some buy latest pretty home accessories and some do their own crafts. 

Lets share some of our ideas for this Diwali!

But first of all....

Designing Life wishes all Very Happy Diwali!!

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previous Diwali ideas by me from My Home

how about some Ganesha & Om fridge magnets, HERE

a Toran/Bandhanwar made out of felt. I made this for our first Diwali in US.

Mason Jar Craft! pretty little jars for tea-lights

don't just hang lights, leave some free on floor/shelves

a Ganesha painting, made by me; my favorite!

Pinterest DIY Inspirations for Diwali

Polymer Clay Diya!

how about some Diya shaped mithai(Indian Sweet)

want to get rid for egg cartons? via

turn them into pretty flowers and attach to the lights

via

via

Paper Torans! awesome idea!

facelift the boring tea lights, just use simple duck-tapes

Diya salad? wow! must try

don't have Ganesha paintings? Want to keep kids busy?

How about some Ganesha coloring pages :) just google for these!

Beautiful Buy This Diwali!

Fabric Crackers! buy here

Cracker Cushions! buy here

Driven by the vision to connect or reconnect Indians to their roots,

NDTV recently launched indianroots.com

they have beautiful products for you and your home!

roli-rice holder

shubh-laabh

enameled diyas

hand crafted rangoli

pooja plate

SHARE your Diwali Ideas with us!

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Diwali 2011

Happy Diwali

It's Diwali, and this is one of my favorite times of the year. I love preparing for Diwali decor every year. Last year we had just shifted to our this cute little apartment, so couldn't prepare well... But this year it was special in many ways...

• complete one year in this apt.
• we celebrated our first Wedding Anniversary few months a ago
• our parents are here with us 
• and our trip to India next week...

it's fun and happiness all around!

Diwali @Designing Life's home!

all set for puja

rangoli painted on a plate on our entrance, remember Due DIYs?? it's one of those

our sunny patio, not so sunny at night :)

another part of Due DIYs

my favorite wall of our living room

the Hula girl we got from our recent trip to Big Island, Hawaii

images: Designing Life, please do not copy/use

1st Sharing, Tanya anurag

Remember my post about SHARE??...So here I am sharing our first blogger friend , very talented Tanya Anurag of My World...My Space.

Here is a post about 'Tanya Anurag' by Tanya herself.

"Hello Everyone! I am Tanya from My World... My Space and I am really happy to be here at Designing Life. Sonam has filled this virtual space with colors and creativity, which inspires all. I thank her for having me here, today. It gives me a great chance to connect with all of you and take you to 'My World... My Space'.

I have always had this love for art and creativity. I believe, I have it in my genes! I paint. I love to sit with all the craft supplies (mostly trash) and come up with something new every time. I have recently started gardening. I blog and I read a lot of blogs. I pin. I cook. And I enjoy driving my husband crazy with my weird ideas ;) 

I recently posted about the Diwali Decor I did at my place last year! Sonam of Designing Life saw it and asked if I would like to share it for her readers. I quickly said 'yes' because I love to show-off *wink-wink*. Here's what I did for Diwali.

rangoli and candles

On the left is the 'Rangoli' I made using Foam Glitter Sheets. Yes, glitter sheets! Rangoli has always been my favorite part of Diwali... more than sweets… more than crackers!! For me, Diwali decoration without rangoli is unimaginable. The traditional Rangoli powder could not be used because of the carpeted floors everywhere. I had to think of something else. The answer was these sheets!

bought these from a dollar store

It is easy to draw on and cut these sheets. Just sketch the design on the back side of the sheet using a ball point pen and cut it. Stick the pieces together on a large piece of paper. Cut off the left over paper and your Rangoli is ready!

I would recommend to start with some easy designs.

TIPS-

• While drawing the designs, it is important to remember to draw the mirror reflection of the desired pattern.
• Some of these sheets have peel-off adhesive layer at the back. This cuts down the use of glue. 
• If you cut a big piece and it does not fit in the small space, you can easily squeeze it to fit. I did that almost all the time.
• What's best is you can get a pack of these sheets at Dollar Store.

The candles were really easy to make. In fact, the mothers can take it up as a project with their kids. I simply painted the tea-light candles with acrylic paint. Once the candles were dry, which hardly takes a few minutes, I made the design on it using the glitter tubes. It took me almost half an hour to give the plain-white tea-light candles a new life J

Don’t they look beautiful. Days after Diwali, the candles are still used everywhere in the house for decoration.

If you liked this post, do stop-by at My World… My Space and have a look at all the other things I have to share. See ya!!

Thank you Sonam for having me here"

-Tanya Anurag

What you doing this Diwali?

So share your creative ideas in the blog land.