Mango Birds Fruit Art

Hi friends, I am back with another beautiful fruit art using just a knife. One evening when I asked my daughter what fruit art should we make with mangoes, she said let's make birds mommy. And she added that yellow birds will look cute. Well, I think they definitely turned out cute.



To make this fruit art you need a few strawberries, one mango, and edible googly eyes. Then I added a couple of apple slices and few blueberries to get enough fruits on her plate. You can substitute with whatever fruits are available in your kitchen that you think might suit the design.



First I sliced a big chunk of mango going right next to the seed and then using the tip of my knife I traced a bird shape. After making sure I like the shape I went around again going a little bit deeper.



Then I pushed the bird shape inside out and sliced under the bird all the way. Check out the video at the bottom of the post for any clarifications.



For strawberry hearts, first I cut each strawberry vertically half. Then from the top, I cut out a small 'V' shape and curved around the edges. I used these strawberry hearts for bird's wings and to add some love on the top.



Slice two thin pieces of apple to form a ground (on which birds are standing). And I added a line of blueberries that look like rocks in our art.



I also cut 2 small triangles out of grapes for bird's beaks and 4 tiny rectangles for legs. If you don't have edible googly eyes on hand then you can always cut 2 small circles out of blueberries for eyes.



Here is the final design. What do you think? Did it turn out cute? Let me know in the comments. Thank you for stopping by.

Don't forget to check out this video on youtube for a clear understanding. And be sure to subscribe to my channel. Thank you once again. See you soon.

Simple Fruit Art

Hello, if you have been following me on social media you know how much I am into fruit art these days. It all started when my little one suddenly lost interest in eating fruits. I couldn’t give up and kept running behind her to get a cup of fruits into her tummy. It was most frustrating for both of us. Suddenly one day I got reminded that I had a few fruit skewers left out from her birthday party and I decided to give them a shot. I cut a few different colored fruits and put them on a skewer. I went to her sneaking it behind and said surprise here is a fruit wand for my princess. Thank god it worked and she got so excited to eat fruits that day. That’s the beginning and I never stopped after that. Making simple yet beautiful art on the plate was fun for me and it was fun for my little one to eat. It was a win-win.

As I started sharing them on social media few of my friends reached out to me and asked to make short videos to show them how I make those food art plates. So here I am sharing my first fruit art video with you all. This one doesn't need any kind of special tool, just your regular kitchen knife will do the trick. I am going to show more fruit art and breakfast art ideas. Subscribe on youtube to be notified when I post them.

 I share my food art pictures on Instagram. If you want to see some stunning yet simple fruit art I highly recommend following me at letsmakeitlovely.

Hope you enjoyed my first food art video. Do tell me in the comments if you will give it a try. Thank you so much for stopping by. See you soon.

Sreemantham Decoration (South Indian Baby Shower Decor)

Hi there, its been more than a year and I am finally getting back to my blog. Life is busy with baby, I am glad I had my family and a loving husband all through the though times. Okay life aside lets get back to the Sreemantham decor I did for my own Sreemantham a year and half ago. Sreemantham is a traditional South Indain Baby Shower.

       Here is a detailed video I made recently with clear explanation.

                                    

I planned this backdrop way ahead. I wanted something traditional, simple and definitely have a god idol or symbol on the backdrop. I wanted to take it easy and go with age old maroon and cream color combination. This flower Ganesha from a wedding picture that I saw long back on Pinternet was my inspiration. However I didn't want to use fresh flowers because it can be overwhelming to do things on the celebration day. So I went ahead and ordered these fabric flowers from this etsy store they took around 15-20 days to reach me.

I used dollar store foam board and started roughly drawing outline of Ganesha. I kept everything (hands, legs of the idol) connected unlike my inspiration image to make it easy for hanging on backdrop. I would recommend using thick cardboard instead of foam board if you have patience and energy to cut it. As foam board wears out easily once painted. Foam board will survive for one time use though.

When I felt satisfied with the outline I used an exacto knife to cut along the outline.

I painted it with red acrylic paint to match the flowers so that the white board won't peek through red flowers.

Using hot glue gun I stuck fabric flowers as close as possible to each other all along the cut foam board. I had to cut the plastic stalks under the flowers to make them stick properly.

Using a piece of yarn I hung it on the backdrop stand. I reinforced the back of Ganesha cutout with few more foam pieces and hot glue to make it little strong at joints.

For the backdrop, I bought satin cloth and backdrop stand on amazon. I stitched a huge curtain using cream color cloth with pocket at top to insert rod. I followed this video from youtube to put up my backdrop stand and fabric. I tied a rope from top left corner to top right corner of backdrop stand to add the bead strings that my mom got from India. For top center I used artificial flower thoran I had on hand.

For Sreemantham table its a tradition to fill 5 or 9 plates with variety of fruits, nuts, sweets and savories. I borrowed the steel plates and diya stands from my friend. My sister in law is so sweet, she took all the pain to bring my favorite sweets all the way from Atlanta to Tucson. And my mom made few at home. We added a simple 2 tier cake to the table though its not Indian custom.

Bangles and flowers are the important things on Sreemantham table. Every guest adorns mom to be with bangles and blesses mom and baby. I chose pink and green bangles to match my saree.

For return gifts I shopped these pretty bangles from India. I roughly estimated hand size of each friend and wrote names on the bangle cover to make it easy to give them in party.

We wrapped bangles and tambulam (beetle leaves, beetle nuts, fruits, pasupu, kumkum and blouse piece) together in a decorative plate. 

For the return gift bags I added a thank you note and a little bling using my Cricut.

Overall the party looked perfectly like how I wanted it to be and the best part was everyone loved home cooked food by mom and sister in law. 

Note: Websites referred are for only reader's information. I am not paid for any of the referral links.
Additional Info: If you are in USA and are looking for fresh flowers, beetle leaves, mango leaves or any pooja items there are websites that deliver them overnight to anywhere in USA. I did not know this before my sreemantham. Thought a word might help someone.

Here is a picture of me and my husband from Sreemantham (South Indian Baby Shower Party). Hope you enjoyed the party too. Thank you for stopping by.

DIY No Bake Fruit Cake

Hi there. Holiday greetings to you. Are you running short of time to bake a cake or looking for a healthy alternative? How about a no bake fruit cake for this Christmas or New Year? Let me show you how simple it is to make a gorgeous looking fruit cake in no time.

Ingredients:

• Watermelon (I used small )
• Cantaloupe (I used small)
• Strawberries
• Blueberries
• Sliced almonds
• Homemade icing or Store bought icing (I bought fresh vanilla whipped icing from bakery section in my grocery store)

Cut two 1.5 inch thick whole slices of watermelon and one 1.5 inch thick cantaloupe across middle part of fruits. Remove the outer skin and middle seeds part for cantaloupe. Shape them into circles using a plate or bowl as template.

Place the round slice of watermelon on your cake stand or plate, layer it with icing and top with a layer of cantaloupe slice. I filled middle hollow part of cantaloupe with berries. Add one more layer of icing and top it with another watermelon layer.

Here is how your fruit arrangement looks like.

Cover the fruits all around with icing like you usually do for a cake. Its not necessary to have a perfect smooth looking icing. We are going to cover it all.

Covering your cake with sliced almonds is the fun part. All you have to do is take a hand full of sliced almonds, keep your hand at 6 inches distance from cake and throw the almond slices aiming at your cake sides. Almond slices will stick the icing. Repeat this procedure until you cover all around the cake with your almonds. Clear away any of the almonds that fall around the cake. 

Arrange some blueberries around the bottom of your cake.

Slice the strawberries thin and group them according to size. Placing even sized pieces along a row makes the cake look more professional. We will start with bigger pieces for outer circle and lower the size as we go inside to the middle. You will see what I mean.

Take bigger size pieces of cut strawberries and arrange around outer circle of your cake top as shown.

Take next size group of strawberry pieces and arrange second circle just overlapping the outer circle a little as shown in above picture.

Similarly fill in a third circle of strawberry pieces.

Top the center with a cute little strawberry.

Tada!!! There it is. A stunning arrangement of fruits or a no bake fruit cake as I call it. Don't worry if your watermelon oozes out a little water but make sure you finish the cake as soon as possible. (As we added icing to the fruit it is not good to keep it or refrigerate it for long.) Make it fresh and eat fresh.

Hope you enjoyed my post. I wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Thank you for stopping by. I love to hear your comments.