Presenting--- Mr Ladybug

We did our first craft project last week, and how!


V had a school fancy dress wher he had to go as an insect of a flower. We had got the information about this long ago, but in my usual procrastinationg mode, i just let it be.

Having done this last year, i decided to chicken out and take the same route- hire a costume. In mumbai, you can get anything, for a price. So there i was, ready to face this event, all mentally prepared.


What i did not anticipate though, was a healthy overdone of parental guilt!. The weekend before last, i started getting guilt pangs about my non participativeness. I had a horrible feeling that i was turning into one of those moms who have all the money and material pleasures , but no time for their children. Aaaarrrgh!!
So i went to office, and took advice from my colleagues at office of what i could do. And man, i did get tons of advice. Experienced, practical advise.


Armed with all that, i asked V what he wanted to be "flower" or "insect"? Of Course..he wanted to be an insect. Good- what if i had turned him into a flower and he disowns me 15 years later because of what i did?
Then we took his insect book and looked at all the pictures...and decided on Ladybug. So ladybug it is..Errr..is there a Mr. ladybug? Never mind.


I spent two evenings after work collecting the things i needed for the costume. I decided to make him wear black from top to bottom and make a wing( bump??) on his back ,coloured red with black dots on it. The plan sounded perfect to me.


The show was on Saturday and friday evening, back from work, i started on the costume. For the wing, i made the frame with thin wire and made the antennae with a metal hair band and red balls , that was available everywhere for christmas decorations.Just when i hit a mental block on how to cover the frame with paper, TB walked in. Wonderful!


He covered the entire frame with paper and covered the top with red felt paper. By the time we were done , it was much past midnight. We crashed after leaving it out to dry. The highlight of the night being V slicing off a part of my finger along with the cellotape, and wailing because he hurt me:-)


In the morning, i added the spots on it with black felt circles, attached strings to tie the wings around his shoulder and did the finishing touches. And we were ready to roll.
The fancy dress was nothing spectacular..
-Parents sauntering in at their wish, holding up the event.
- Most kids refusing to pose and clinging onto their parents.
- The principal asking the parents to stop talking to each other so all of us could hear what the kids had to say..
- As usual, chaos.




V went in second, enjoyed every moment of the attention and said his lines. He went around telling his teacher that his mama and papa made the costume * heart swells with pride*.
So we have figured out that we are not so bad at this fancy dress thingie after all. I have been asked to safekeep the costume by all my colleagues, so they can use it sometime.
Recognition!makes you feel good and want to do stuff all over again. Maybe not! my finger is still sore and painful. I'll give it a while.


Attaching some pictures of V in his costumes. The honey bee was the last years costume, the hired one-*smiles sheepishly*. The other one , behold - is the in house creation.

Now again....He does look a little impoverished, doesn't he?...Impoverished ladybug!!