Fabric Boxes

I have been looking for fabric boxes in the market and was wondering if I could make one. Here's what I did. I took a small cardboard box. And then:
                          
                                   Pull the box apart

 

Put it flat on the fabric for measurements

Cut two long pieces (this is for 2 sides of the box and the bottom) and four small squares (for the other two sides of the box)

Place the long rectangle pieces on either side of the box as shown below

Mark the positions where the small squares need to be joined to the long rectangles. Stitch them. 

We should get two huge plus signs (I don't know any other word to call those pieces :D) Place these two plus fabric pieces on either side of the cardboard piece and stitch as close to the cardboard as possible. I hand-sewed the whole thing. 

Now fold the sides of the box so that the edges are together and staple them up

 

Trim the raw edges. Take a 1 inch bias tape and hand-sew the tape to raw edges to cover them up

Hem the top edges of the box so that there aren't any raw edges on the top of the box

This whole project took me the greater part of my afternoon. I was thinking of machine-stitching everything. But the cardboard kept moving and it was very difficult to stitch right at the edge of the cardboard so that the fabric lays snug on the box.

May be I should come up with a quicker and easier method to make these fabric boxes!

Funny Gait

It is very funny to watch a California Quail walking. 

These birds do not have any inclination to fly even when being chased. They move their feet so quickly that the feet are just a blur... Watch the video and tell me if you find their walking funny. :)

P.S: This is my first video upload. I think Blogger is compressing my video. The video clarity is better only if viewed in the small screen.

Dumb Bass

Did you know that even fish have nick names? I came to know of this during our visit to Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Kelp rockfish is also called as "dumb bass". Why? Because it hangs upside down and motionless near kelp. Even when divers approach, it does not swim away. 

"Dumb Bass"!!! What a weird name? Initially I thought it was "Dumb Ass". Some diver may have scolded the fish, "Dumb Ass!", when it was not getting away from his/her path. That is what I thought! :-)

After a little bit of research, I found out that "Bass" is a common name given to a variety of gamefish. "Dumb" Me!! ;-)

Restroom at Charlotte Airport

Charlotte. I did not know the existence of this city until it became a via point of our flight journey.

Charlotte Airport. A place where I waited for V to catch up after we had taken our separate flights from San Francisco. 

Charlotte Airport restrooms. A pleasant surprise! 

I found the restrooms so unique. It was a pleasant surprise to see a bowl of candy with Welcome sign at the entrance. The caretaker was greeting everyone with a genuine smile. The whole place was spick and span. The caretaker would flush and mop right after the person came out of the restroom cubicle. While we washed our hands at the basin, she would pull out napkins and place them handy, right next to us on the counter, or hand it to us. I never had such an experience in any restroom before!

Knotty Tidbits: 12

Title: Games

We sometimes behave so childishly.. or may be.. childlike...!!! At the Monterey Bay Aquarium, there were so many activities for the kids to do... like guessing the names of fishes, or where they live, or guiding some fish to its home etc. etc. We also played each of those games and the best one being the one shown in the picture. We had to spin the wheel and based on the number, move the magnetic hermit-crabs that many blocks. The first one to reach "Welcome Home" block is the winner.

V and I played and after a long series of jumps and falls, he won... But that's not important; what is important is the time spent together! (I wonder if I would write this,  had I won instead! :-D)

Droid Ad

We were walking in the streets of Downtown San Francisco... Someone stopped us at an intersection. It was for a video shoot. We saw a black vehicle zoom past us and another black car following it with a video camera.

At that point of time, we did not know whether it was for a commercial or a movie. Soon enough this AD for Moto Razr Droid was all over the place.

Knotty Tidbits: 11

Title: Whistling bhajans

V loves whistling... I love it when he whistles the title song of "I dream of Genie..." and... "Paluke Bangaramaye Na..." (Ramadas Keerthanas)

Appa also whistles old Hindi melodies... I do not know how to make whistling sounds... Every time I try to whistle, the only thing that comes out is: air!!! I love to hear people whistle. But I have never heard anyone sing bhajans ever before... Glad to hear V sing... no... whistle... them!

Sea horse

Sea horses are very similar to us, humans....

... And yet so different! :)

The Spell...

From the Monterey Bay Aquarium...

Christmas lights

... That's what they say...

But a few things are too good to be kept secret! 

For instance, this Christmas tree at The Venetian... 

It was made of plastic/glass bubbles. 

The colors of the bubbles changed every couple of minutes. 

It was truly a beautiful sight!

(This is the first time I put a GIF in my post. I used http://picasion.com/ for making this GIF )

Strange Words

Initially words like elevator, mailman and trashcan felt a little new... But sometimes we get stumped by the words in usage in the US... Words like "Cow pie"!!! We were wondering what kind of a pie it was! A quick look-up in Google revealed a completely different meaning! 

Back in India, it's called "cow dung" and that's not a thing to be eaten!!! Yuckkkkkkk!!!