Summer pictures

Hello everyone!

How are you all doing?

My parents are visiting us from India and truly soaking up the sun whenever we can!

Here are pictures taken by yours faithfully at a visit to a local park in Mississauga (that's where I live)

We took a lot of great family pictures while walking around the lake. With my girls perched on this stationery bike and an amazing beach like backdrop.

I took this picture just by chance to check the white light mode on my camera. And wow when I came home I was totally blown away by the colors on this picture. 

Happy to be back

Hello everyone!

I am back from my trip to SE Asia!

I hope you all have had a fantastic holiday season!

We spent over a month in SE Asia and with the huge climate change after coming back home to Canada it really took  a week to get over the jet lag.

Its great to be back!

This is a picture of me and my girls totally the tourists in Marina Sands Bay, Singapore

Have a great day!

Ballon Day

Summer seems to be coming to an end. I can feel the chill early morning and in the evening. 

But we've been very luck this side of Canada, we have had a fantastic Summer!

My husband and I thought we should take some pictures of the girls at one of the neighborhood Japanese Parks. with balloons as props. And then the big shocker came.  We stopped by at the local party store to get some balloons and got to know that there is a shortage of helium! Helium is now available only in the hospitals. So we had to get the balloons inflated using a hand pump. 

Anyway, we got some great pictures of the girls with the balloons.  But the balloons didn't last too long. 2 had popped even before we took pictures and before we came home, we had just 2 left.

We seem to take everything for granted.  Can you imagine that we - people on this planet - have used up so much helium that there is a Worldwide shortage? Take a moment. Its time as citizens of this world to Reduce and Recycle. Use only what you need and in small quantities.  Its helium today...

Vegetable picking at the Farm

On Saturday, we were at a farm in Milton, Ontario. Thanks to Mark, who was a great host and let my girls pick vegetables. A fun time for the family to actually go and pick some vegetables straight from the vegetable patch.

This is a picture of bees (Italian bees) from just a foot away. They were very docile and did not get bugged  by us! Hah!

Can you spot the bee? 

And I never thought cucumbers grow like this. I always thought they like to hang. Duh!

My daughter trying her hand out getting a fresh red onion

These are really red hot chillis. What happened to them when they came home? We fried them in chickpea batter. We Indians call them chilli pakoras. Yummy and very spicy!

  Never seen a ladybug at such close quarters! 

And my daughters posing sunshine happy with the sunflower that they got from Mark!

All pictures: CourtesyMe

Jump and have a great Friday!

Its a lovely day here in Mississauga, Ontario. Not hot at all and just so balmy. Was out with my girls taking pictures. And I happened to get this shot ...after a lot of failed attempts. What do you think?

That's my elder daughter jumping off !

Have a great Friday folks!

I will be away

via styleathome

Hello everyone! I am just stopping by to say I will be away. There are weddings that I have to attend and it all starts from this evening. I will be catching up with some dear friends and family. Its going to be very hectic, but looking forward to all the dress up and razzle dazzle of indian weddings.

See you all in the second week of July 2012!

Winner of the Spring is in the Air Contest on Icraft

This is a picture of my elder daughter captured on Easter with her  Easter egg finds. This got the most number of votes at The Spring is in The Air Contest on Icraft.

I now get to choose my business cards and marketing material from Uprinting.

With so many beautiful pictures at the contest, I am sure it was pretty hard to cast votes.

But I am on cloud Nine today!

Happy Friday!

                                                                          Picture via 

I love this Tangerine Ice bucket. 

Its perfect pop of color for those summer soirees and backyard parties

Hope your week was fantastic!

I am looking forward to the weekend. Its the long weekend here in Canada. We will be celebrating Queen Victoria's birth anniversary on Monday. 

But with the weather gods being kind we will be having some great outdoor fun with the family.
 Until next week then.... Happy Friday and Enjoy your weekend!

You need only 1 Reason to be happy

But just in case you don't have that one ..

Here are 5 of 'em

Via 

HAVE A HAPPY Wednesday Folks!

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The Easter Egg Hunt

Hope everyone had a fun filled Easter.

I was hoping to get some chalk paint and color the eggs, but this time round, I was really busy with things around the home. So we did have some hand painted wooden Polish eggs that I hid in the backyard.

The joys of an Easter egg hunt...I thought we would finish in about 5 minutes...because the way I hid them, but it took more than a half hour!  

The Tooth fairy is visiting!

Too much excitement in the house. 

The princess is 6 years old and the tooth fairy is making her visit pretty soon!

And this is what momma is getting...

These are adorable wooden tooth fairy boxes which you can find at Jeananne Sizemore's  ArtWhims. 

Visit her store for some wonderful handpainted creations. 

Picture courtesy: ArtWhims

The Princess Pirate Party

The Spring Break is over here...but I still feel that I need more spring break time! I am still exhausted with the party that we had on the weekend!

Over the weekend we celebrated my daughter's 6th birthday party. M wanted to be princess pirate.

Here's a few captured moments of the party that day! and the reason why I am still tired...

The Princess Pirate Cake

I didn't spend too much time on fancy decorations this time. On the table, besides the cake, we had  pirate ship and a treasure chest filled with jewels for decorations.

I got the templates for the birthday banner and  for these cute goody bags from nslittleshop If you are a Lalaloopsy fan like my daughter is - you must visit nslittleshop because she has so many lovely designs to choose from.

And pirate goody bags had these

Pirate bottle cap necklaces from PocaDotz.

Pirate toys from Party Packagers

Pirate clips for the girls from fairypatchboutique

Whats a party without loot?
I had a game where the kids had to fill boxes in 10 seconds  from a treasure chest
Since I love origami, I made these boxes for each pirate

A close up of the box

And how can we miss a treasure hunt?

10 easy rhyming clues for the kids was big hit.  The treasure to be won was a box filled with necklaces, rings and braclets. Each kid was allowed to pick one of the jewels. And seriously, it was fun to see them actually showing it off!

I also had a game for the moms of the pirates - Pass the booty just like passing the parcel. I had a box (another one of my origami boxes) that I put in a pair of earrings from my new collection for April 2012.

And I cannot imagine how my girls could party so long....from 6 pm to midnight...they were awake!

Aaargh! A Princess Pirate Party

Princess Pirate costume Via 

We've planned a Princess Pirate Party for my 6 year old this Saturday! 

The stage has been set.

The excitement is totally Aaargh - Charged!

So Mateys, stay in tuned for the details of the Party!

Until then, Have a fabulous FRIDAY and a wonderful WEEKEND!

Masala Mango Mantra: Happy Birthday to my Princess M!

Masala Mango Mantra: Happy Birthday to my Princess M!: H a p p y  B i r t h d a y! My daughter M (a moment captured on her 6th Birthday) 6 years...time has really flown past.  I  still re...

The Bewitchin' Kitchen: Ah Kriti | Indian Inspired Jewelery (Giveaway)

The Bewitchin' Kitchen: Ah Kriti | Indian Inspired Jewelery (Giveaway):     Ah Kriti is an Indian inspired, hand crafted, jewellery shop on Etsy owned by Reshma Sandell. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Originally I had planned to make a necklace out of these colorful rondelle beads but seeing the heart charms I decided to make bracelets for my daugthers M and N. I added a few pink colored wooden beads. 

M's bracelet has a ceramic heart charm in purple and green which hangs at the end of the bracelet

N's bracelet has a metal heart charm which I put in the center of the bracelet.

Loved to see the excitement that my li'l princesses expressed when I showed them their bracelets!

I found these cute bookmarks for Valentine's day 

which my daughters will be giving out to their classmates this Year!

via 

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY !

xo xo

Reshma 

Weekend Wrap Up

How is everybody doing? How was your weekend? Did you get to see Madonna at the Superbowl? I am not a big fan of hers but I thought she was pretty good with those somersaults or flips on stage. I cannot do that and will not attempt it! I also thought her black and gold ensemble sans the headgear was quite smart!

You can watch her stage performance during halftime at the Superbowl 2012

courtesy Youtube

I am so glad that the weather was fantastic the past weekend. My girls and I had some great time bonding together. We did our own spa like event at home. I got my girls a nice foot scrub, painted their toenails, gave them an oil massage, while husband cooked some great country style pasta and made some strawberry mousse.

Generally I would like Red wine, but this is the first time I tried some white wine and loved the Blu Giovello Pino Grigio and of course it went so well with the country style pasta.

And for some dessert, strawberry mousse.

Ahhh! If all weekends were like this, life would be bliss! Side effects: I will have to lose 15+ pounds everytime!

Words to live by:Emerson

Was just thinking of how my day is going to end...when I saw this!

via pinterest.com

See you all on MONDAY!

Presents for myself: Audrey or Emma

Its been ages, since I bought a book (like in hardbound paper). Thanks to the I-pad, I just read my favorites on it. But am now contemplating going back to the good old days, when I would just curl up on my favorite chair and read...without anyone disturbing me.

Now with my girls not being that demanding I happened to see these 2 books online here and I am debating on which one to get for myself. 

I am a big fan of the beautiful Audrey Hepburn and would love to keep this book and read and re-read. See my earlier post on this icon here. 

As for Jane Austen's Emma - that's a classic I don't own.  I am actually drawn to the gorgeous pink embroidery on the jacket of this book.  

Hmm...should I buy both? 

Image credit: anthropologie

Why this Kolaveri Di?

This song has taken the Indian music world by storm....

I don't understand Tamil...but the music is quite catchy!

Enjoy folks and see you all in a brand new week!