Ironing Board Cover Tutorial

Excited to share with you guys that we are having our second child !
We are expecting the baby to arrive on April 30th. Thats the EDD.
Richu is very excited about the new kiddo. He's been stocking up thing for his little baby.
We visited a shoe store the other day, rather than looking for a shoes for himself, he came back holding a tiny pair of shoes for the baby. I absolutely adore Richu when he does such little gestures :)

So now that I have loads of time in my hand, I have turned to doing some stuff that have been in my mind for some time now.  The ironing board sitting in our bedroom is not a pretty sight. It desperately needed a new cover. That should be evident from the picture i guess. :)

Yikess ... this is really embarrassing right !!
Now after the brand new cover, its definitely better !

I scourged around the internet on how to make one, and it turns out that its incredibly simple to create one yourself with some left over fabric.
I absolutely love these simple and easy DIY's that can make so much difference to everyday stuff and cost absolutely nothing !
You could do with some left over fabric, but I got some rally good fabric at a bargain price from the shop the other day and decided to use that.

All you need is some:
 - Fabric
 - Scissors
 - Elastic

You dont have to be precise in your measurements, this is perfect project for beginners.
Ok so now to the steps.

Step 1:  Grab your fabric. place your ironing board on it.
Step 2:  Cut the fabric leaving atleast 4 inches across the perimeter.

Step 3 : Place the elastic at the edge, fold the fabric over and stich stich stich all the way.

Check this video by Niler if you want to see the detailed steps. Here she has used batting, which I skipped.

Your brand new cover should be ready in 15 mins max !


Enjoy !

Sharing A Nook

Its seems to quite a long break from the blogging world. It feel good to come back to writing this tiny piece back in my blog again.

I am planning on starting a series called "Sharing A Nook" so that I can stay connected to the blogging world. I intend on sharing some special corners of my home that I love. Simple DIY's that have transformed an otherwise boring space.

We have a half wall that separates the wash from the dining area. I utilized this space to bring in some greenery into the house.Money Plant has always been something I  associated with as a child. My Mom used to love them. She used to fill up the bottles with water and drop in a money plant.
I used up some of the empty pickle bottles, Brought in a pack of Glass Paint from the nearby store and got to work.

The procedure of glass painting is fairly simple. The instructions are pretty simple, so you shouldn't have any difficulty working with it.It was my first experience with glass paint so its a pretty amateurish work. But still I was pretty happy with the outcome.

The beautiful colorful cylinder that you see was done by my 3 yr old. So that's very special to me.
He taped around different paper tapes around the tissue roll holder to create these lovelies. He's creative guys. He loves to hang around when I craft and loves drawing too.


Hope you loved my little space. Share your experiences on how you transformed your spaces. Drop in a comment , would love to hear from you !

A Trip to Singapore

Hello There !
Have missed writing on my beloved blog for sometime now.

Finally I am settled in Trivandrum. Joined a new company a couple of months back. Found a nanny to take care of my kid. New workplace is good mainly because of the proximity to my home. I can now come home for lunch everyday, pick my kiddo on the way home.
We also took a week long vacation to Singapore :)

So today I'll be elaborating on the trip we had.

We have been longing to go on a international trip ever since we married. But it wasnt happening because of some complications during my passport renewal. Finally I got mine and Richu's passport like 6 months back. Then we started thinking and exploring about places we could go. October seemed like a good time to make the trip since we had some holidays coming up. So we started planning something around that timeframe.

We began with thinking about Europe, Australia, Egypt and then finally settled for Singapore. Primarily because we wanted to try out and see how travelling with our naughty 2yr old is going to work out. Also the ticket fares were humongous.

One day while surfing through sites, we came across a really good offer with Tiger Airways and my husband jumped to the opportunity immediately. This is something I love about him.He has a quick turnaround time with respect to making decisions. I on the contrary would have waited for another few days before I make up my mind.

Trip Advisor was one tool we relied heavily on planning our itinerary. It's an amazing site that's a perfect companion to travelers. They even have a cool app that lets you download the entire info of a country, starting from the map to the best places to visit. If you are planning to travel. This should be one of the first thing you should do.

And so we flew to Singapore on the 26th of September. Richu was well behaved all though the trip ! Thankgod for that ! :) Yeah and food department he always needs some nudging. But we managed.

We stayed at the Albert Court Hotel in Little India, we choose that place specifically because my son is fond of Indian Food. Infact he doesn't eat any other stuffs. It was a nice hotel with some good friendly staff. The room was bigger when compared to Singapore standards.(Read at many places that the room sizes in Singapore are pretty small).

The MRT of Singapore has been the most reliable. Every 3 -5 mins they have one running to the various destinations. We took a MRT card from the airport which we used to all along.

The first day we kinda explored in and around Little India. It wasn't much of a high point for us. Because it was more or less India itself. There is a huge Tamil population in Singapore and it seems Tamil is one of there secondary languages. In fact on some of the MRT lines, announcement is made in Tamil !





We then visited the Clark Quay in the evening. Its a river side party area, with lot of restaurants catering different cuisines. We had some MasterChef style food there;) hehe. Back home I made these dry roties and not so good curry for dinner. And I always make it a point to serve them wen MasterChef is running on TV. It makes us imagine that we are having all those lovely dishes they show. :)

 Next day we went to the Singapore Zoo. That's the place Richu enjoyed a lot. It was such a superbly maintained zoo. We could implement so many of the things that they did there in our Trivandrum zoo. They had these Tiger feeding sessions, that was amazing. The trainer would throw chunks of meat and the tiger would jump to grab those. It was kind of an open zoo. You could see the animals real close. There was also the giraffe feeding session that we missed. Then there was a seal show. The seal was perfectly trained and the show was very entertaining. Overall it was a very nice experience. Thank god for the strollers available for rent, else the zoo experience would have not been this good.



Next day morning we visited Chinatown in the morning. A little china in the midst of Singapore. It was like entering one dreamy land with lots and lots of Chinese stuffs. Brought myself not one but two lanterns which are now happily hanging in my dining and balcony. :)
Then we went to the place I personally enjoyed the most "The BreakOut Games". It was one of a kind game where you need to solve some puzzles and stuff to escape a room. It was very nice experience. I don't want to give away the plot, so I am going to stop here. Be sure you visit them. Its something I wouldn't miss.

Universal Studio was something we were looking forward to. As magical it is in movies, the place was a dreamland. I suddenly wished Richu had been a little more older. He would have loved the place so much more. With their big Disney land kind of palaces, huge Egyptian sculptures, dinosaurs, sesame street characters and elaborately crafted rides, the place was pure fun. But the fabled Roller Coster which was supposed to be best of all was not operational :(. That was kinda sad. The Universal Studio is located in an island called Sentosa. There are several other tourist attractions there. Next day we visited the Adventure Cove water park in the same island. It mainly has water rides. We didnt enjoy much there. I think they could do a better job at their water park coz I kinda of enjoyed waterparks back home like Wondela much more :). Also there is an AMAZING sea aquarium that you wouldn't want to miss.






Next days we visited few other places, Bugis - The shopping destination, Marina Sans Bay - supposedly the most expensive hotel. The SuperTrees are a must must see there. We watched the super tree light show in the night. Lying on the lush green park and watching the perfectly architectured Super Trees light up is a sight in itself. The laser show of Marina Sans bay was also pretty good.

 

Thats pretty much it.

Do let me know the places you have visited !

Whats on my mind !

Chevron Quilt !

That's whats on my mind for a couple of days now...

Dont they look lovely..

and then I stumbled upon this video on how to make a chevron quilt. She makes it seem so simple.

Check it out here.

Also found an Indian site to buy quilting supplies and other craft supplies. 

New Place New Dreams !

We relocated !
A couple of months back Ikka landed up with a new job at our native i.e Trivandrum.
In normal circumstances I should have been the happiest soul on the planet ! It close to my parents house, it close to his parents house. There's no pollution unlike bangalore. Trivandrum is one of the most beautiful places with lot of beaches (which I soo much love). But Yet I was unhappy ! I was unhappy with his decision to relocate. I protested & fought with no particular reasons to support my stand. I guess I have NewPlaceAnxietyDisorder (Yikee! that would be one of a kind..haha).
Well after all the months of anxiety I am here in Trivandrum. Landed just last week.

Now I am jobless and thats my new problem. What will I do if I dont find a proper job! Then I got 2 jobs.. But the pay is bad. Should I go & join with a lesser salary? I dunno, I have still not made up my mind. Can I become a stay at home wife. I am not so sure that I would make a good house wife.. I dont cook well, I can be painfully lazy at times & my mood swings can be horrible when I dont have anything interesting to do.

But then I have all my varying interests - Painting, Singing, Decorating, Crafting, Sewing. Ideally I should not be idle at anytime. Thats when I realised I have so much of setting down to get done at our new home.
I have to setup an entire home. Make it my home !

And staying home can be great for Richu. I'll get to take care of him better. Be there for him , teach him some nice things, play with him, take him to school. I seldom find enough time for him when I go to office. I am mostly tired and exhausted by the time I get home, so I guess this is redemption time for all the time I couldn't spend with him.

Wonder how our minds works. Even when we have everything we tend to brood on the smaller things we could have. I guess it time to stop worrying & start Living.

Just came up with some initial sketches to decorate my new home !
What do you think?

Fix a zipper

Wow... I am so excited... Just fixed a zipper. My jewelry box is made of cloth and had a zipper. Recently the zipper pull couldn't close the zipper anymore. I was disappointed and though of ways to fix it.I thought  probably i'll have to replace the zipper. But then the ever reliable google came to my rescue.
Check out this extra simple video which tells you how to easily fix a zipper just by using a plyer. I tried it and it worked!
Now I can start using my jewelry box again :)

My Mom's Gift to his grandson

Mom loves Richu. That's so evident from the gift she gave Richu this time she visited us. A hand made quilt. She sew the entire quilt with her hand. No Machine. I just cant imagine to do something like that...coz I am so impatient.

My Mom has been the greatest inspiration ever. Even as a kid I remember she making these awesome things. From soft toys to wall hangings, nib painting, dresses and what not.There was always perfection associated with whatever she does. Fortunately I got like 10% of her talent I guess.
Someday I'll share with you some amazing things my mom has made.

Love u amma for the wonderful person you are. I am so blessed to have you.

Mouse Pad from fabric scraps

When you have fabric scraps lying around, the best way to make use of them if trying out things you have never done before. I did that today. I utilized it to try three things I have never done before - straight line quilting, free motion quilting and fabric painting.

So this is the first one.

Nice one right. But yes I know I have fallen back really bad on the binding end. Yes I need to master that.
Problem with that is it requires patience... ;)

Now onto the next one. This is the one where I tried my hand at fabric painting.

Tried some freemotion quilting. But this was a failure. I know it looks pathetic. So i started using it as a hot-pad.

\
Lesson 1: If you plan to make a mouse pad, go ahead with straight line quilting. Its smoother and more comfortable to use. Free motion quilted one was a no- no (Certified by dear hubby)

Lesson 2 : Be patient while doing the binding. :(

What have you been up to lately???
Happy Crafting !

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Gym Bag from Tshirt

My Husband has again decided to go to the Gym. I am keeping my finger crossed that he sticks to his plan this time around. All the other times he enthusiastically goes to the gym, pays loads to money (generally he opts only for 1 year memberships :( )....  and then NEVER GOES !!! I am sure the gym people adore him for that. Every year a mystery guys drops by their gym, pays for a year's membership and never comes back! Have you seen that cool guy ...hahhaaa....

Well so the other day we visited some gyms around our area. He particularly liked a gym very much. I haven't seen him so excited before. He packed his stuff into a plastic cover the day before itself. But then I noticed he was putting his stuff into a Plastic Cover. That's uncool isn't it !
So I decide to make a bag for him. I have never made anything for him before. So this was the perfect time to show some husband love.
I first asked for his opinion about the kind of bag he needs. Ran some searches in the internet. Surfed through pinterest. Finally stumbled upon something pretty.
It was a simple drawstring bag made by Amanda. Check out the tutorial here . It was a smaller version. I made a bigger version and again I decided to cut open one of his T-shirts to get the job done ! :)

I loved one particular TShirt. It had a nice color. So decided to go ahead with it and here is the final product.

Isnt it nice. And the best part is it was sooo easy to make. It took less than half an hour to get the job done.
And when you are using a Tshirt you can do away with measuring and cutting fabric.

I took these pics just before he was hopping off to office.... And the funny part is he didn't go to the gym that day too !! I hope my effort doesn't go wasted... :(

That small label u see in the middle is something i nicked from another Tshirt :)

I love the simplicity of the whole project. Small ties at the bottom to hold the cords together.

Drop a comment as to what you think.
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When a boring stool gets a splash to color

A boring stool gets a makeover. Once upon a time it was a boring plastic stool. It got some fresh fabric and some bright yellow paint and here's how it looks...

I have been wanting to paint some thing for sometime now... this stool sat in a corner and stared at me ...and I decided it was time. Painted it yesterday night. Stuck some fabric carefully on top. Mod podged it again on top to give it a glossy feel.
 Richu loved it...as soon as he got up in the morning...he saw the chair. He stated giggling and hasn't let go of the stool since then :)

The before Pic...

During...

Finallyy...
The Beautiful Before After Pic...

What do you think... do u like it??
Love it ?? Hate it... leave a comment.

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Take care !

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