New year and a new post! After all my aspirations, trials and tribulations I am here again finally. These past few months have kept me occupied in various things, craft being the chief one of them. More than anything else, I hone my photography skills(however insignificant) on my crafts these days. So dear reader, you can expect most pictures in my posts related to my crafts. Please bear with them.
Now, lets come to the main subject. I mean Coco. As expected from the son of a strict mother, he is turning into a fine gentlemanly boy, who tries to be of use by putting spoons back in the cutlery stand after licking chyawanprash off of them! Thanks to my keen eyesight and 'Vyomkesh Bakshi' like detective spirits, I spot them right away. So, you can come to my home and stay assured of being served with clean cutlery. Almost always. :D
Oh, by the way, we have moved into a British era bungalow, that comes with a defunct fireplace et al. But, unlike the good old 'foot of the Himalayas' days, I am yet to discover the joys of staying here. The elaborate engagements of social life and personal matters have kept all of us too busy to look around and smell the flowers. Literally!
But, one can always hope, right!
Read on for picture descriptions. It might be interesting, I promise!
The topmost picture is of two dreamcatchers out of which the white one is hanging one one of my living room walls delicately. The multicolored one is made on order for someone. It might be interesting for you to know that the rings for both of them come from a large embroidery hoop, that couldn't serve its intended purpose. It hung inside my closet for many years, until one fine day another purpose was found for it. Destiny!
The second image is of few cards that I made for someone on request. They might look ordinary but they are the fruits of a couple of hours of painting, measuring, cutting, gluing, babysitting, snacking and homing in general.
Then there is one corner of my living room which I tidied up hurriedly before clicking a decent enough picture for the blog.
The last picture is of Pink Pitari's jewelry, that was lying in separate mounds of necklaces and earrings while I was clicking their pictures for promotions.
I think this is enough for the first post of the year. Hope to be here more often.
Hello from another corner of our incredible country!
Yes, we did it again.. I mean shifting to another station. Though, last time, we moved to a place that is famous for its scenic beauty and cool climate. This time, we are braving the scorching heat in a crowded city of North India. However, like all feisty army wives, I have made my peace with this place and already liking the fact that for the first time in so many years, I will be living in the heart of a bustling town, with markets and malls in close vicinity. You win some, you lose some.
In contemplative moments, I compare my life to a snail who carries her home on her back. The news that I just delivered in a sentence has a deep impact on all our lives. While Coco is enjoying an extended summer break, I have taken a break from my incessant crafting and Coco's father has his own gazillion things to chalk out. In the next few months, we will gradually settle in this new place, find a new school, meet new people and make new goals. But today, as I was going through my photo albums, I found images captured towards the end of our previous tenure and thought of sharing them here.
1. Missing the green views of tea gardens sprawled about us, covering the blue hills like plush quilts.
2. Remembering how the clouds tumbled down the adjoining hills to the lush green grass of the golf course, amid a pleasant drizzle.
3. Wish I could again have a window in my home that showed me the above view, of clouds surfing deep down the valley beneath the hill on which my home was, while I sipped my ultra delicious lemon-black pepper tea. Ahhh! Those were the days..
4. Also close to my heart are the many intermittent 3 day breaks during the year gone by when we explored South India. The picture above was taken at Dhanushkodi where Coco enjoyed playing in the sand and splashing in sea-water to his heart's content. Fun fact about this pic: He is standing at the land's end with his face towards Sri-Lanka.
5. There is almost no chance that I can witness the sun setting beyond the hills of Ooty from my home again.
6. Holed up in a guest house during long summer days, while all my craft supplies are packed away in trunks along with the rest of my household things, all I dream of these days is how I will dance with joy when I will access them again. I can also be found watching entire seasons of old comedy series (repeating for 10th time probably), sleeping for hours and lost in crafty dreams.
7. A lot of those crafty daydreams include the plans of how I will make a neat and cozy space for my crafts in my new home. However these plans are highly dependent on what kind of house do we get and when. Above is a shot of the tiny corner where I sat and made some of my jewellery. Cute, isn't it?
8. One of the best things that we as a family experienced and loved here is the Nilgiri Mountain Railway aka the toy train that courses through the hills amid sprawling green tea gardens. The trips were planned to please Coco, though, it must be clear that we enjoyed it with equal joy, our hearts springing with each new wonderful view as we watched left and right.
9. While the entire tenure was about scenic beauty, picnics, outdoor barbecues and hikes, this particular bike ride-cum-hike to Pristine Valley near Ooty was a memorable one. It was fun, beautiful, adventurous, dangerous and tiresome, all at the same time, with Coco's father throwing his phone in the water for the umpteenth time, an incident that will be the told and retold for years henceforth, each time increasing in comical value.
10. Memories of blue hills can never be complete without missing each of my friends that I made here, and I made friends by dozens. A very small number considering the fact that the hills housed almost 400 of us. Here, some of them are seen pondering over deep questions that I threw at them. Don't go by this picture, each one of them is quite a fireball by herself. This morning of potluck breakfast and a mean game of Housie is etched in each of our memories. High five girls!
Obviously I am missing all this and much more, I am also looking forward to the days, months and years we are about to spend in this happening new place. A move is something that I am always okay with because this is one of the many things that I love about being an army wife. It keeps me engaged and interested, with ever changing scenes and scenarios. After all, change is the only constant in life, ain't it?!
1. Tea: This incredible place has so much to offer to tea lovers like me. The fact that I have a tea lover neighbor increases the charm manifolds. I had swore off green tea, even for health reasons. She introduced me to her super tasty green tea infused with black pepper, ginger, lemon juice, sweetened with jaggery and now I am addicted to it. Then she went off to the local market and bought these ultra delicious flavored black tea bags and kindly gave me samples from each flavor. Now I am crazily in love with these and have declared Peach flavor tea the love of my life. I gifted one pack to my sister who confirmed that they tasted amazing.
But since the pack has four different flavors, I am saving trying to save the peach tea bags, having them very occasionally, because, hey, that's what you do with the things you love most. You keep them. But there are days like today when it is just me and my peach tea. So Peach tea it is! Cheers!
2. This Weather, This Place: The weather here is amazing and while the rest of India was burning under the scorching sun during June and July, we were curling up under cozy quilts and sipping the above mentioned beverage, clad in sweatshirts and woollen socks. The incredibly picturesque blue hills and the green carpet like tea gardens spread about us create a magical scenery together. Though I am busy in other activities so much that I rarely find time for a walk these days, the knowledge is enough that I can take a walk in bright green tea gardens under swirling steamy clouds whenever I wish.
Shoving It:
1. This Weather, This Place (Again!): While the list of lovely things about this place can still go on, the only thing that is enough to spoil all the love is the prevalence to common cold and cough in this environment. Cold, gloomy and damp atmosphere and sunlight playing peek-a-boo are the usual weather details here which make people, especially children susceptible to viral infections and once the illness starts, it spreads like a wave in the entire neighborhood. A couple of weeks ago, almost every human being in sight, man or woman, adult or child was coughing and sneezing, harbouring germs and passing on the legacy to others who were not sick. All this becomes overwhelming and unbearable after a point and one wants to run away to a sunny and cheerful place. And if you are someone who reads this blog regularly, you would know the exact location I am talking about. Oh, how I miss those sunny days that I spent nestled in my bean bag!
To add to the gloom, sometimes the wind starts howling unpredictably. It goes on for many days at end and the noise makes one go crazy. It is louder than an ocean and gives us sleepless nights. On the second (also the topmost) floor of a building which stands high on a hill, this howling and growling wind is even more noisier and makes me feel like a caged bird. I would not have mentioned this noisy wind if it would have stopped only at that. Take a look at the following picture.
The broken tree as seen above was standing in front of a window which also provided me an awesome view of the town spread on the hill in front of our neighborhood. One windy morning I woke up and thought something was missing in the entire view from the window. After a few moments I realized that the green foliage that framed the scene was missing and my jaw dropped as I peeped outside. The tree had broken into half vertically and then had fallen on the road, incidentally on our car boot, scarring it minorly. My sweet tree which was also home to many birds was gone, and my car was dented, all because of this unsettling and utterly noisy wind.
When my maid told me that the weather was going to stay like this for a couple of months, I was heartbroken, Thankfully, it got over after a week or so and it is not windy anymore apart from an occasional cool breeze. At least we are sleeping comfortably. Phew!
The blue hills have been a mixed experience till now. It is taking a lot of effort to like this place, quite different from Himalayas, which are effortlessly adorable and feel like home. I cannot say it enough that I miss those Himalayan days!
A big hello from a new place. May was all about packing and moving and June went in settling down in this awesome new place that has everything that the lazy woman loves. It has beautiful weather, hills and of course flowers of all colors. The surrounding hills are carpeted with lush green tea gardens which make a view so luxurious, its takes your breath away. But what it really lacks is the familiarity and comfort of the place that I called home for past two years.
Between packing and unpacking boxes, the time flew by and little did I realize that I was actually missing something. Coco and his dad both became busy soon enough and I was left at home wondering why I found myself engulfed with a strange emptiness. More alarming was the fact that many of the ladies here complained of feeling blue and depressed. Being the hardcore optimist that I am, I never admitted to it openly and strongly believed that these are initial jitters that will subside in some time.
The hills and the climate are great, but just not comforting enough. We are staying on the top floor of a three storey building, which provides exceptional views of the town nearby. But it is not something that I wake up for. It is not something that I look out for, like I used to play peekaboo with my rosebushes. Waking up and seeing a hill town spread before my eyes is a strange view and I was unable to assimilate it all into my existence, for first few days.
It has been over a month now, and I am still figuring out my favorite spot where I can sit with a cup of tea, a piece of craft, a book, my laptop, or just by myself quietly. This new home of mine has a serious lack of such cozy corners.On top of that, it is too rainy and too windy here. Then one day it occurred to me. I am not an apartment dweller by nature, none of us are. I have stayed on ground for most of my life. I even hate flights. Staying on second floor is really hard work for me. It makes me feel, well, restricted. Additionally, in the busy schedule, I barely spend any time alone at home. Being an earth dweller, I need to grow my roots before I start feeling comfortable. I need to spend time in this new home, to be able to love it and call it home lovingly.
These days, I am trying to do precisely that. The good news is, we are slowly growing on each other, Nilgiris and I. Meanwhile, the treasured memories of Himalayan foothills are safely nesting in my heart.
Boxes packed, loaded, gone...catching a few moments in the garden before saying goodbye.
There were times when I wondered how it feels to be fat! But since this post is about losing weight, I will not talk about that wonderful time. www.worldofmoms.com want to hear about the story where all this weight loss madness began for me. After the magical skinny days were over, my body showed its true colors or to be more precise its true curves.
My tendency to look round is God's gift. I have been trying to keep myself fit since long ago. But my laziness comes in between me and my fitness program. Once upon a time, i.e. long ago, when I started working for the first time, I thought that I should now get out of the student mode and look every inch the professional that I was now. So I kissed my laziness goodbye and devised a fitness plan. But lazy as I was, I did not want to venture out of my home. So I decided to skip rope at home in order to look fit and fine. An easy and sporty way, right? But alas, something somewhere went terribly wrong, probably with my shoes or my technique, and after two days of skipping, a little sharp pain erupted in my left knee. It kept growing and became so intense that I started limping quite noticeably. I was new in office and not many people knew me. When they began knowing me, I was limping more than Langda Tyagi of Omkara. So they came to know me as 'That poor girl' in HR with a limp. 'Tch, tch, she has a pretty face, but poor girl cannot walk.' That's what their pitying eyes told me. And kept telling me so for a good 15-20 days, by when, I was well known in the office, partially due to my seat right next to the main passage where it was clearly visible, and partly due to the limp factor. I had to take medicines and apply various ointments in order to get well, which was not soon. When I had fully recovered, and people who did not see me on a regular basis in the office met me again, they were surprised to no end. My limp going away was nothing short of magic to them, since they had never witnessed such a speedy recovery. However, within six months of staying there, I had lost a lot of weight, due to all the stress and bad food, and my old friends refused to identify me.
Now, after marriage and a kid, I have become much rounder, and heavier, with a stubborn and round belly which loves me so much, it does not leave me. Even then, I never attempt to go beyond my capabilities as I have learnt my lessons early in life. I follow a few basic rules though, that work for laziest of the people:
1. I try to eat regular, healthy food, nothing fried or fatty.
2. I try to keep up my routine of evening walk. It helps.
3. I have learnt to have a single lemon juice once a day, and many glasses of water during the entire day.
Apart from these few things, I never attempt to go for any crash diets or extreme measures. They might help but they cause other problems like headaches or acidity, which is unbearable for me. So, maintaining my current health takes priority over losing any weight. To each, her own!
The past few weeks have been crazy for me. I have been busy, not blogging, not crafting, not doing anything that I usually do. The biggest reason for this among many other things is, Coco has started going to a playschool. And that is quite an affair for the lazy woman who had her routine (or lack of it) sorted out. On top of that, this is a giant step forward in our lives and feels heavy, emotionally speaking. And my head feels heavy too, because of waking up 10 times and snoozing the alarm clock, before finally panicking and jumping out of the bed. My husband is out of town for a few weeks and without him, my so-called routine jumped out the window. So I somehow manage to wake up, get ready, wake Coco up and get him ready, and out we rush. Everyday, I try my best to make it to school in time, though I have not achieved that zenith of our school going days yet. Thankfully, the school is not so strict about the smallest children's batch timings. But it soon would be. Finally, my father has his laugh, because what he could not teach me (early to bed and early to rise!), my son seems to be teaching me, and how!
End of June saw my home flooded with multicolored books, bag, uniforms, tiffin boxes and water bottles, all of them covered with little happy cartoons. As I managed to keep calm in the flurry of instructions from the school, Coco was mostly happy about the chocolates and little toys that he received during those admission visits. 'Cover all his books in cellophane sheet, with cellotape,' 'Of course, how hard could it be?' I must say, very hard! Though I felt nostalgic in the beginning, I almost broke my back covering his books and developed an enmity to anything which required cellotapes. Do such small kids need books at all?
On his first day of school, Coco did not know what was happening and walked in happily, enticed by toys and rides and slides, even as other children were screaming and kicking with all their (tiny) might. This was the most dreaded moment and I was happy to think I was not going to experience it. Though it was still weird for me, seeing him take those tiny steps away from me. But Coco's crying and screaming started next day and worsened as the week progressed. Seeing little children cry like that is torturous enough, add to it my own kid, and I want to join him in not wanting to go to school.
I am constantly crafting since his school started, and the school is constantly ahead, giving us new projects to work on. 'Of course, crafting, anytime. I love crafting. How hard could it be?' After all, I lovingly embroidered two napkins for his lunch-box, I am so crafty. So give me more...
Whoa... so much in the first week? Where is my life going? I thought as I went through the above page of the diary. 'Making that fruit cut out is going to take my entire week. I will have to find an exciting and out of this world idea, then plan it and buy a lot of craft supplies to make an awesome fruit costume. After all, I am a crafter, everyone should know.'
But thankfully, I have much experienced friends who are kindergarten teachers or moms of school kids. They brainwashed me and gave me the simplest of the ideas, 'Make a fruit shape on chart paper and paint it.' Okay, so here we go strawberry! A colourful and sort of designer fruit, which could be easily cut out and painted with red poster color. Throw in a crown of green leaves on satin ribbon and voila! Coco is now strawberry prince.
As far as the other part of the diary page is concerned, below is his Eid attire which was duly bought the same day from the local 'Paltan Bazar' amid heavy rain, and though we could not find a cap to go with it, the look is still quite Eid-like. That he was still not fully woken up and in no mood for a picture is another story.
My experienced friends used to tell me that once kids start going to school, I will have a lot of free time, and I dreamt of using that free time in pursuing my multiple hobbies. But this free time still evades me. Coco's school was for 1 hour daily for his first couple of weeks. It is gradually being increased by 15 minutes every week or so, to settle children. Making two trips within an hour, that too on a bad road seemed not a good idea. So, I decided to wait in the car, outside his school. After spending one morning there, hungry, thirsty and bored, I started carrying my own little 'lunch box', a bottle of water and something to do.
As I doodled away, sitting behind the wheel, I could also keep an eye on the neighborhood and felt like James Bond. The passers-by gave me suspicious looks too, that just added to the thrill. I happily scribbled and clicked pictures as I made progress. Then, somewhere between those rainbow stripes, I might have had a little snack. See?
Even when I was working, the hour seemed to go by very slowly. Now, when the time has increased to a full two hour, I come back home and try to get the feel of the little 'free time' which goes away in a blur of activities. Though externally I seem to want more of 'me time', deep within, I look forward to go back and bring him home. When he jumps out of the classroom door and greets me with a smile, it seems like an achievement. Together we go to school and together we learn our own different lessons.
While we are on the subject of crazy episodes with kids, FirstCry have come up with this really awesome TVC, which shows Big B himself, trying to figure out children's shopping. It has a cute child model, and Mr. Bachchan himself with oodles of charisma. At the end he drives the point home with the line 'Bachchon ki shopping bachchon ka khel nahin'. The ad has everything that a successful commercial should have and his presence makes it really unique as he is the hottest new grandpa around. Well played FirstCry.
'You know, I used to wear extra small sized clothes, and now, going through all the sizes, I am fitting into extra large ones!' I squealed in front of my friend, who did not point out due to politeness that sure I could still wear extra small clothes, if only I looked into the plus-size category. There has not been a day when I have not wondered how it would be like to lose my flabby belly and to look like my pre-baby old self again. Its not like I did not try. I gave it a try many times, working out, cycling, swimming, walking, the works, but I could hardly keep it up beyond two days, credits to my laziness, except walking, which I do for reasons I would not like to disclose (okay, because of my husband!)
My eating habits are not worrying normally and I have never believed in dieting. Even if I did, I do not think that it is made for me, because I know I cannot do it. The moment someone says, 'you should not eat this', I start wondering and craving and salivating for that forbidden thing, though I am a regular sabzi-chapati eater and not a foodie from any angle. When I returned from my parents home and saw my husband after a gap of two months, I was shocked. All he had done was study and eat, and was looking round in shape, at least his face was. So I declared that I am not cooking anything (except for Coco, of course!) till both of us lose weight and qualify again for having some real food. Both of us pledged that we will be slim again.
Apart from being physically active (he is in army, remember?), he is more methodical than me and regularly takes warm honey-lemon water every morning, which he says is a great way to keep weight gain in check. I started having it too, but two days later came back to my plain water. No worries, I had mealtimes during which I could eat (or not eat) what comprised of a healthy slimming diet.
He said that he will have three rotis from now on in his lunch, I completely skipped my rotis and stuck to dal and veggies only. He said he will have only soup or fruit in dinner, and I followed suit. I carried my new found 'healthy-no carbs-fiber rich diet' enthusiastically almost for a day and a half and then the world was suddenly a very gloomy, lethargic place for me. I had not felt this lazy in a long time as my stamina had completely drained out. Like a zombie, I spent the rest of the week, barely managing to get up and look after Coco. It was almost a week later that the above mentioned friend called and I went to see her. I told her that I had not eaten in the last week and was very hungry. She smiled and cooked a nice simple sabzi chapati dinner for me, and the above conversation about clothes' sizes took place while I was savouring her spicy 'papad sabzi'. After I had my fill, I came home happily and kissed my diet goodbye.
Though, small changes like replacing sugar with honey are really helpful. Dabur Honey has launched Honey diet which is the answer if someone wants to cut down on calories without giving up sweetness in their life, and also enjoy added health benefits like great immunity and glowing skin to name a few.
The lazy woman is a management professional and managing is what she has managed to do all her life. Seriously, I think I can manage various kinds of activities simultaneously. I do not multitask, but I switch to different tasks because my attention span is small, I get bored easily and my hobby/activity spectrum is wide. So I like to include various things in a day, like cooking, crafting, daydreaming etc to stay cheerful. But there are areas where I do not like to venture as I know I am lousy there. Though I would love to plan my day, or organize my home, these jobs are mostly left to the elements or outsourced. Though I keep planning great things but hardly ever get to their execution. The biggest change that I need in my life is to move on from planning and arrive at organizing, speaking in management terminology.
It has been well over a year since we moved in this house and even now I feel like there is so much left to be done, mostly because certain areas in my home are not organized to my satisfaction. But I do not know where to begin. So when I came across an article on rewardme.in, named 5 Areas You Should Always Keep Organized in home section, I went through it immediately and found it kind of answers my question. To begin with, I could clearly name a few areas of my own home which need my time. Great beginning!
Of the five areas mentioned in the article, three are clearly my problem areas. My kitchen, my closet and my bedroom. The kitchen of my current home is much bigger than standard army kitchens but somehow it is always out of control. The containers and small objects usually do not stay in their designated place after a while. So whenever I intend to beautify my kitchen, these objects take all my time and efforts and I run out of my enthusiasm to address the real problems. When monthly ration comes, I have to work hard to find a place to keep those items. I have realized, as the said article also mentions that one needs to devote a few minutes daily to maintain things in order. And separate bins are on their way to my kitchen too.
The idea of an organised closet feels like an impossibility to me, more so after Coco came into my life. I find myself every other day sitting in front of his little almirah, folding and arranging his colourful little tees and shorts, pajamas and socks and love doing it. But finding time to do this to my own clothes looks like a fabulous dream. A friend gave me great tips on organizing closet and time management. In combination with the tips from this article, these few tips have changed a lot about my closet. She told me she does not take out separate time for her closet, rather she barge-opens the doors and just starts working. I followed her tip and now I am halfway through organizing my clothes, that too according to colour, as suggested in the article. This has also helped me see that pre-baby era clothes were taking up more than half of the space (and making me feel nostalgic...and fat!), and I never found anything good to wear. Now I have freed all that precious space and gradually filling it up with 'only what makes you look and feel fabulous' as the article says, and which is my new closet mantra.
After this initial success at organizing two big problem areas, my morale is high and I have also realized that an organized closet is the key to an organized bedroom in my case, as most of my overflowing closet items are dumped on bedroom furniture. All that taken care of, I am now left with a big almirah full of craft supplies and various odd bits and scraps, medicines and cosmetics, mostly kept there out of Coco's reach, along with my gazillion bangles and junk jewelry lying in various states of clutter (above? Not mine.) Sorting and organizing it is going to be my next project.
Falling in line!
As I am feeling really good now and way more comfortable, I am also noticing that I am an organized person at heart, have always been this way. Plus all the visits to rewardme.in have been truly rewarding! See the proof to my new-found love of organizing in the above picture. :)
I am participating in the ‘Ready For Rewards’ activity for Rewardme in association with BlogAdda.
