Happy 2014!

Happy New Year and Happy Lohri everyone!!

Now that the New year has started, I am sure you would have given some thought about resolutions.I do not make resolutions as I never fulfill them, rather by feb. end I even forget about them. So,  I have stopped making them. But this year , as I was going through my favorite blogs, one blog - andreadekker.com, talked about this. And then Andrea, the organized blogger talked about setting goals for the year. And I liked the idea. So, this year I am setting goals for myself. Since this is new for me, I am setting simple goals.

Number one, on my list is - To get organized.And to achieve this, I am again starting simple. Everyday, I am going to spend 15 minutes only on organization/cleaning. 15 minutes only, with timer. I will organize/clean any one area within 15 minutes.Even if that means tidying up the bed / dining / living /laundry area. To ensure this, Every monday, my post would comprise of last week's 15 minutes organisations.

Number Two on list is - To start exercising. The goal is to reduce 10 kgs.Now, since I am no expert in how to achieve this, I am setting my goal to go to gym three days a week. This, I am hoping, should do the  trick.

Number Three is - To be regular in blog posts. And to spend more time on blog. I need to market my blog which I have not done yet.For this goal, my target is to link my blog post in the link parties hosted by other bloggers every week or atleast every other week.

As I said earlier, I am a newbie. So, I am starting small with baby steps. How about you? Have you made resolutions? Do u abide by them? Are you a goals person? How do you ensure your goals are met?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Happy New Year everyone!!!!

 Wish this new year brings prosperity, happiness and success to you and your loved ones. I know I am on break, but decided to pop in just today to wish NEW YEAR and to let u all know what I have been doing and what I will be doing in the coming days.
This new year I am more determined to continue with my DIYs, organizations and decor exercises. And Yes! I do wish to start physical exercising but being the lazy kind that I am, I have not yet planned for it. I will.. yawn... in coming days. Meanwhile, I have been trying to set up my home. So much is going around, that sometimes I loose track of what is expected next. Right now, we are waiting on three things. Sofa, LCD Panel and the dining area side board. Oh and the new wood work that I plan to get done for creating new storage in dining area window. And the Dryer installation..And there is that trip that we plan to take next week.Oh, and there is some paint work that is remaining for the wood work that we have already got done. Phew!!!! Anyways.. having entered the new year, I do have the extra energy and excitement. Hope the same to you too!!! I will see you in few days!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Winter Break - Blogging Break

My son's winter break starts from today. And will continue for 2 weeks. The second week, we are planning a 5 day trip via car in and around Agra. I will elaborate on that travel in my next post. The first week is going to be busy with the rest of the woodwork that we are contemplating getting done. So, I am taking a break from blogging for 2 weeks. I will be back in the new year on LOHRI. See ya in the new year. Stay blessed. And party hard.

Mess to Bliss in 30 minutes!

After about 10 days of break, I am back. I can give lots of reasons

for being absent for this long, but I will just cut the long story

short by saying - Life happened. With visits from relative and

friends, going out of town for some family visit, getting wood work

done and then looking around for more options. So much has happened

in the past few days, but every night before going to bed, I used to

think, I will definitely write tomorrow. But somehow, the entire day

would pass, and the same thought would again accompany me to bed at

night. But today, I said enough is enough. Gather your thoughts, and

get down to work. So, here I am finally.

I was busy in the above mentioned tasks. While getting the work done

in my son's room, I decided to tackle one mess which was bothering me

for quite some time. I was procrastinating this because of one reason

or the other. But then, that day I just could not take that any more.

Here is what was bothering me:

You see, complete mess. This mess is of the broadband, phone, and my

hard disk on pogo(for personal cloud storage). I analysed that I

needed to hide all this mess in a box. My container set box was the

right sized box for accomodating this mess.

I got a wrapping paper from a stationery store.

And pass half an

hour, the mess was gone and what remained was this:

Sweet, Nice, Delightful. Isn't it? I also repented as to why did I

prolong it. It really took just half an hour. Anyways, Now I can look

at it all day long.

Now its your turn. Show me some beauty around your house!!!

DIY Broom Holder

No!! I am not popularizing AAP here... Although I like that party but this post is not regarding AAP. Ha ha!!!!

Brooms, Mops, Buckets, Trashcans - All these were a common sight in my kitchen balcony. No matter

how organized I tried to keep it, it seemed the brooms just flew all over the balcony without any witch

(wink wink) to create a messy look. I was always thinking of doing something for the brooms but was

always at my wits end. I initially thought of buying a big trash can and to put all the brooms inside that

(with broom side up). But I just did not want to add clutter to that balcony anymore. Already there were so many things lying on the floor that adding one more bin for storage just did not appeal to me. I wanted something that could go on a wall. And then one fine day (I mean night), I was trying to get some sleep, and suddenly a light bulb lit up in my head. I woke up my husband who was already half asleep (Sorry dear!), and said - Hey ! I want to make a Jhadoo (Broom) holder. And he gave me a look - WHAT? Whats that? He He! Hold on .. and then I explained to him what I was thinking. And with those dreams off to sleep I went.

The next morning, I ran to a nearest shop and bought an elastic. The elastic there was not wide enough, so I asked the tailor sitting at the shop to cut the one meter elastic in half and stitch it below the other half to increase the width. After I got it, I came back home, and in the next ten minutes, I had my Jhadoo holder ready.

Here goes the picture.

 Here goes the process:

I took a leftover plank of board lying at home. If you have one, good for you, or you can just go to any plywood store and get a leftover plank from them for free or for negligible money. I had this.

I nailed the elastic on plank by making 5 sections. I kept the elastic a little bit loose so as to have the

room to lift it up to slide the broom or the wiper in. And Ta Da!!! The DIY Jhadoo(Broom) Holder is ready. I got it put on the wall, the perfect place. And This is how it looks. No more unsightedly view of random brooms on floor.

Love this!!! And the floor is clean now!!!!

Happy 6 months Bday ILU!!!!

My little daughter turns 6 months (young) today. This post is dedicated to her.
She loves eating. Ha ha. Everytime, someone eats in front of her, her eyes follow
the route from the plate/bowl to the mouth. She wants to eat everything we eat.
We did 'AnnaPrashan' for her some 15 days back after doctor's recommendation.
Her weight gain in the last month was not sufficient and she was not even having milk
properly because all the time she only wanted what we were eating. So, doctor asked us
to start with semi solids and home made juices. It seems, she is teething. Also, it seems
that she is just about to start speaking. Many a times, when I am trying to make her sleep,
she starts doing 'aaaaaa...' in an impressive tone as if she is trying to make herself sleep.
One day she put her Dadiji to sleep with her 'aaaaa....'.

She loves to hear the song -'Kudiye ne tere brown rang ne' by 'Yo Yo Honey Singh'.
There is a medley that my husband sings for her -' Aha ..., Eh ...., Oho ....Aa'.
And she loves that. I sing - 'I love you my lovely little daughter'.. and she again gives a smile.

Today, we celebrated her half yearly b'day with Sir Johns cake. That is the most loved
bakery around here. The chocolate cake and bluelerry pastry were just awesome.

May GOD shower his choicest blessings on her. I wish her happiness, health, wealth and contentment
in her life. She is playing with her Dad and I just need to go to her now!!! Love her!!!

A Store to store stuff

Yesterday, I narrated the story of how we got our first apartment. The best part about this flat 

(apartment) was that, it had a 5 x 6 store. A Raw store. Perfect place to get started to make it our 

own.I wanted the store to be a place for holding the extra linens, quilts, suitcases and fancy clothes.

 By fancy clothes, I mean the sarees and suits that I only wear at weddings. I am a capri and t-shirt 

person at home and shirt and trousers person for office. I know, I know ! Not really Indian outfits. 

But I feel comfortable in these and prefer to remain so. Sarees and suits are reserved for weddings or

parties or special occassions. Anyways, coming back to store, For it to be able to store all these 

things, we had to plan it properly. Big space for storing quilts, and long space for accommodating 

sarees, lots of shelves for linens and extra bathroom stuff. After putting in a lot of thought and 

planning, I came up with the following layout :

As you see above, the left side picture is for the left side of the store and similarly, the right side

picture for right side of the store. The store entrance was from the middle and I designed the space to

use the left and right sides and the middle path was for moving.  The left side bigger shelves were for

 the extra sheets, extra towels, curtains, basically a linen closet. The smaller part with shelves was for

extra toiletries. The middle big portion was for storing the fancy sarees and suits. The bottom shelf

was for shoes. On the bigger portion of right side, we stored the quilts and blankets. The lower portion
was for hubby's suits, jackets.

The portion above the cabinets were

kept open so as to store the suitcases in that area. As first timers, we did not know about what

material to choose and where to go. The carpenter was good but was ignorant of the advanced stuff

that we could have chosen. The overall store turned out to be functional but there were some left out

things which we could not sort out as to how to get those done. The sliding doors never slided

properly because the carpenter did not use the channels, he made the wooden channels which are not

efficient. But, We could store lots of stuff there. In the end, I was really proud of what we could get

from that raw store. Although, I am sure if next time we want to get any such thing done, we will

research it ourselves on internet/market first to know the solution of the problem so that we are not

left with half functioning items.

This story is pre-blog days , So I do not have 'In-progress' photos. Just the completed versions....