Watermelon themed breakfast table

Weekends are meant for enjoying and relaxing. To make them even more interesting and extra special, I have come up with an idea to have a special themed (healthy)breakfast. Last three weekends I have managed to do so and am hoping to make it a tradition. 

So last weekend we had a watermelon themed breakfast. The summer sun is finally on its way out- and before it is still warm I thought of doing a watermelon themed 'party'. It was on my mind all the summer and it finally materialized. Watermelon is a perfect fruit to cool of on a hot summer day and it is good to cleanse the body as well. It is said to be a good for diet and to detox the body. With all these good things about it - I thought its perfect for a healthy breakfast:)

I started the preparation a few days before with my 2 year old. We made the banner and other party accessories. The watermelon bunting is very easy to make. All you need is colored paper,pen, glue, scissor and string. I cut the shapes from the colored paper and with my son glued it together. I drew the seeds with a pen. We glued the string at the back. 

We made 3 semi circle watermelon slices - big, medium, small- for Daddy, Mommy and baby toddler.. its hard to believe he is not a baby anymore. 

Sunny boy pretended to eat the slices with lots of oohs and aahs!!

The same way we made smaller triangles and circle shaped watermelon slices. I glued these to picks to make little flags.

I cut the watermelon half and scooped it all out. Luckily I had a bowl which fitted perfectly inside the watermelon. It was filled with watermelon juice. I decorated the border with melon scoops with toothpicks. The other food included watermelon on ice cream sticks, melon balls, Oatmeal with strawberry and melon pieces. I wish I had cupcakes as well.

 The breakfast turned into brunch- too much finish so much watermelon in one meal:)

Joining the party at BNOP, Artsy corner, Show and Tell, Home sweet home, Party bunch, Beautiful !

Organize: How to hide the cables/ router

With the increasing number of gadget dependency in our lives, there is an increase in the mess of the wires as well. Till the day someone invents wireless electricity( is that even possible?!!) we will have keep on finding solutions and hiding those ugly cables.

I don't like the site of the ugly tangled up bundle of cables at all. I hide them behind the cupboard and paintings. This way they do stay hidden but well I won't say very well organized. 

The other day I found some brilliant,practical and good looking DIYs for the cable issue.  The basic idea behind them is - "Just box it!! "

                                                                           Courtesy:country living mag

A charging station: All you need is a shoe box, pretty paper/s to cover the box, a basic driller , cutter etc. Keep all gadgets in one place while keeping their wires organized plus it is easy to add a new hole for a new gadget. Get the step by step tutorial here.

                                                                       Courtesy:  Sewing barefoot 

I hide my router behind a photo frame. I invested in a good looking, sleek one by Asus as well. If i had seen this idea i would could have saved the money and used the older simpler one..absolutely genius idea!! Check out entire tutorial here.

Decorating with paper doilies!!

Remember the table arrangement I did on Thursday. The centerpiece was made by a row of glass bottles with pretty colorful flowers in it... So today I am going to show you how to up cycle/ reuse/ decorate plain bottles to use them as vase..(I know I said Sunday but I am so super excited that I am writing this two days earlier..:)) This one is very easy ...For this you need:

Small sized paper doilies, Clear glass bottles(used, emptied and washed) , flowers , scissors ..thats it!!  So let's start..

Take a small sized doily.. Fold it into triangle ..

Then cut it so that a circle will remain in the center..Another way could be a draw the glass bottle neck shape on the doily and cut it..

It should look like this..

  Thats it.. now put it in the bottles neck ..

and fill it with water, salt and flowers.. done!!!

Arrange many bottles the same way in a row.. 

Done... Isn't it easy way to decorate your table plus to reuse your glass bottles..

I will share some more ways to up cycle bottles soon...!!!

Hand painted wooden spoons

Hi friends.. How was your weekend? We took our baby on his first ever boat ride.. It was fun..While organizing my kitchen I saw some plain wooden spoons..so I thought I will paint them and add some color to my kitchen..I was inspired by the patterns and designs on sarees..

I added a Zari border like pattern on the top side ..

                                  

I have sealed them and are ready to use...

How to jazz up an old toaster

The other day I was passing by the Pylones store at a mall. Pylones has lot of innovative, super cute yet functional items of everyday use. I really loved the toasters with polka dots and flowers..They could add a dose of prettiness in my metallic grey and white  contemporary kitchen. I drool over it every time we went to that mall. 

 So I thought I don't need a toaster as such I have one....then why not jazz it up a bit. I brainstormed some ideas and came to conclusion that I will use the remaining pieces of the cherry blossom wall decal. I had used it in my previous kitchen..you can see it here..

So I cleaned up the toaster and then fixed the flowers on all sides of the toaster. As it is a wall decal it is quite durable and waterproof as well. Do you have a toaster or any such item at home, jazz it up with wall decals!!!!!

How to make tissue paper bunting

A few months back I had posted about the tissue paper bunting I had made on my baby's Introduction party.. I just realized that I totally forgot to document on the blog how I made it.. So here it is..It could be a easy summer project for kids as well.

For a tissue paper bunting, you will need :

Good quality tissue paper(either printed or plain) Size: 40*40cm  Ply: 3 or more

Baker's twine

Glue and scissors

Optional: gel pens

1) One tissue paper of 40* 40 cm size can make 4 triangles. Open the tissue paper and cut it in four equal parts.

2) Make triangles by folding two corner ends.

3) Draw design over it with pens if you desire..I made flowers..

4) Measure the twine as per your requirement and cut it keeping extra for making loops at the end. Pass the twine through the tissue paper triangles and glue the both ends

4) Make loops at the end of the twine and it is ready to hang. This is how it looked like at the venue..You can see the entire party post here.

Tips:

Use two triangles to make one bunting if you want more thickness.

 If you are going make a design on the tissue paper with pens, I suggest first do a trial as to which gel pen works better as some pens don't write smoothly on tissue paper.

Joining party at: Made with love

How to edit images online

By now you must have heard about this one but since I am die hard fan of their site I feel like sharing it on my blog:) I am talking about Picmonkey. Since Picnik closed down I was wondering how to watermark my images, how to edit them...The thought of learning to use Photoshop just for blogging seemed to me like a daunting task..and I find Picasaweb's interface very boring just like Google's Orkut:)

 So you can imagine my happiness when I found Picmonkey. Editing images is so much fun now!! Picmonkey is created by the Picnik team..It is free to use, easy, fast and has numerous wonderful features to edit your images..You can save them on your laptop in .jpg or .png.

Love the curly frame features..In real life I don't get any time to put on makeup but with Picmonkey I can add blush boost, reduce shine,add a lip tint, brighten my eyes, add highlights to my hair and the best of all I can get a instant weight loss:))( ahem..not that I need one:))

So what are waiting for..Go check out Picmonkey and have fun editing !!!

Floral arrangements

Today I am sharing with you some fantastic floral decorations in some of the top hotels in Singapore and Hong Kong. They are quite easy and longer lasting .. at the same time they look so elegant and extraordinary!! 

The first two are from Marina Mandarin , Singapore.

Tall oriental centerpiece

Branches

Raffia/ twine balls

Tall vase

Horizontal floral arrangement

In a tall vase put dry branches.. put some raffia balls on it.. In front of the vase keep a horizontal floral arrangement.

perfect to make a statement and also to break the monotony of the room..

Tea light centerpiece

You will need: 

A branch of rose and some extra flowers..

Glass or Tea light holder

Raffia or twine

Tie a raffia or twine around a tea light holder..Pluck the leaves and fix them around the holder. Fix the rose and some extra flowers as well..

can be perfect for centerpiece for a small table(solo) or a large table(in a row) formal dinner/function or even wedding..

The next two are from Intercontinental, HongKong

Dry floral centerpiece

You will need a cactus or succulent like lotus cactus.( I don't know what is the name of this one...if you know do let me know)

A few long leaves

pebbles

square vase

Put some pebbles at the bottom of the vase ..fill with little water and keep the cactus in it..Decorate with the leaves

will look perfect in a contemporary table setting.

 Tall roses centerpiece

You will need:

Tall vase

Bamboo

Roses with long stems

Banana leaves

First make the vase stable by supporting it with a thicker bamboo. Thread 5-7 thin bamboo in a row like fashion with a twine at the top, middle and bottom with the thicker one. Fill the vase with water. Make a bouquet of 50 roses. Cover  the stems with banana leaf. Fix them in the vase.


Next ones are from Shangri la, Hong Kong

Orchid centerpiece


You will need:


Dry branches
Test tubes
florist wire 
Orchids
pebbles and flat deep dish


Fix the branches in a row in the florist foam..Arrange pebbles over it..Fill test tubes with water and put a Orchid flower in it. Tie these to the branches at different levels with florist wire.


This will look pretty in the entrance or in front front of a plain wall.

Twin floral arrangement

You will need:

Similar looking two vase 

Hydrangeas

Long palm leaves

Fill the vase with hydrangeas and then just arrange palm leaves to create a continuous look

Floral teddy bear


For this one you will need a lot of florist foam and then shape it in a teddy shape. Keep on pushing flowers in it until you have completely filled it up. I would love to make this one for children's party or valentines day ...although not sure where to find this big sized florist foam:)




Linking to Tablescape Thursday!!

How to make baby face cupcakes

So finally I have got enough time to write a tutorial and tips for the baby face cupcakes I made for my baby's introduction party which you saw here!! So here are the steps..

You will need:

Chocolate cupcakes

Butter cream icing

Fondant or marzipan

Round  cookie cutter

Rolling pin and board

Edible black color pen

Food colors. I used blue as mine is a boy.

Spoon, carving knife.

Preparing cupcakes:  
Bake cupcakes. I baked 25 chocolate cupcakes. Let them cool. 

Preparation of the baby face base:
You can use either fondant or marzipan..both can give smooth finish and will not melt in hot weather like in Singapore..I used marzipan..I bought ready made marzipan. It was in natural color. So first I separated 3 parts of natural color for face and 1 part for cap and pacifiers.Put a few drops of blue food color in part for cap and pacifiers and knead the marzipan well for the color to distribute equally. I made 25 equal portions of marzipan.

Preparing the base: 
I soaked the cupcakes with strawberry jam. Then covered them with a thin layer of butter cream icing.

How to make the Baby face: 

1)Roll out one natural colored marzipan. Cut it round with a cookie cutter. Put it on the cupcake and press gently. 

2)Then roll out a blue colored marzipan and cut it in round. Then cut it in half. Press it gently on the top portion of the cupcake. 

3)With a knife make design on the cap base. Make a smaller ball and fix it on the top of the cap.

4)Make a 5 small balls and fix them in the place of eyes,nose and ears.

5) If you have edible pen then with it make dots for eyes. 

6) For lips I used a spoon. 

7) For pacifier I fixed a small blue marzipan ball on a slightly bigger ball and flattened them gently.

It took me something like 3- 3.5  hours to finish 25 cupcakes while my sweet baby slept. He was then 12 weeks and that was the longest he has slept between feeds in the morning. Just after I finished the last one he woke up. I almost felt like he knew what Mommy is doing and didn't want to disturb me;)

 Ok time for some tips: 

1) While kneading the marzipan with the food color if you are not wearing gloves and your hands get colored, the best way to remove food color from hands is by washing hands with shaving cream. It really works!!



2) If you don't have edible color pen then cut the tip of the toothpick and dip the flat tip in blue food color and make dots for eyes.

3) Do not add more than a few drops of food color in the marzipan as it makes it a little bitter.

Fabric covers for jam/pickle jars

I remember my mum's homemade pickle and jam jars with a cloth covers on it .. all neatly organized in a row on the rack..Now we have plastic and air tight containers which don't need the cloth covers as such...and plus people like me are too lazy to make jams and pickles at home..hmmm..Thats another topic which I need to focus some other day:) But for now I want to make at least my jars to look like my mums jars..So I made fabric covers for them!!

Let's see how to make them..

You need any scarp of fabric( cotton would be nice) , scissors, thread , some beads to decorate and a string .. You can recycle any piece of fabric in your home if you want. Place the bottle on the  fabric and cut it according to its shape a inch or two large than its size..

Tuck the border in with the help of pins and sew it along the shape.Sew some beads all around..

Place it over the lid and tie it around with the help of string ..

This is how it will look like after its done..!!

Linking to Metamorphosis Monday !!

How to jazz up the candle stands..

I am a big fan of small things which add ambience and theme to the room ...really amazes me how little changes in the decor will bring that extra umph!!!!! Some days back I showed you a blue and white summer table decor  in which I used candle stands which I had jazzed up with flowers.. Today I will share a quick tutorial to get that look!!!

I highly recommend using Limonium ..also known as Purple statice (wiki) flowers for 2 reasons. First they are available everywhere- in cold countries as well as the warmer and tropical countries. Second is that these flowers can be dried easily and the most important thing is that even after drying their color looks as good as the fresh ones.

Do you remember the table decor I did last year in Zürich. See here and here!!! I used Limonium for the centerpiece arrangement!! 

I loved the natural beauty there and wanted to bring some part of it with me..So I dried these flowers and brought them with me to Singapore. They sit on my center table in the living room right now!!

How to dry them? Its very simple.. Just remove the water from pot/vase you are keeping the Limonium in..Cut off few cms from the end stems.. Let them dry naturally!! 

So coming back to how to jazz up the candle stands... You need scissors, a few stems of Limonium and a string - either a twine/raffia/ ribbon.

Cut off the long stem of Limonium and make a tiny bunch of them. Use the string to bunch them together. Now tie this bunch to the neck of the candle stand. 

As per the occasion you can choose to use the type of the string.  For example: use a lovely white ribbon for wedding or anniversary. For a cozy casual look use raffia .. for fun party look use bakers twine.. 

You won't believe how much the type of the string and the color of the candles can make a difference to the look and feel of your table!!!

Hope you all have a great start to your week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Joining party at Metamorphosis Monday, Table top Tuesday and