New years, new beginnings

It is the freshness in the air that we take with us on our walk into the New Year. Our walk is accompanied by a strange assumption of new beginnings and clean perspectives - the feeling of self forgiveness and a re-energized state of mind. Convincing ourselves of all the things we will not do this year, we tighten resolutions into our lives for isn’t that what everyone does at the start of every year?

The first day back at work and we are all excitedly informing people that they missed out on the best New Year’s bash that we happened to attend. For those who spent their time in front of the telly when it struck 12; well, pity their year didn’t start out on a ‘happening’ note.

Going forward, everything that we see or touch has some sort of a magical appeal. Two months into the New Year - budgets in place, all geared up to succumb to work life and its pressures. Hiking up the tolerance levels, there is a lot at this point in time that one can understand and handle. There are a lot of teeth in everyone’s smiles, fostering great expectations.

Very well, until all starts seeming stale and rather boring. The heartbeats quicken pace and words about ‘wanting a vacation’ start sputtering out of each mouth; not too long until waking up in the morning becomes a heinous punishment of leading a grown-up’s life.

Here is where motivational elements and a little molly-coddling start seeping into the hierarchy. Few fences mended; few fences too torn and tattered. Perhaps a farewell or two and then welcoming on board some new perspectives. Time to learn or unlearn; time to close the year singing a happy tune.

And before we know it, we are on our way to another ‘New’ Year.

From my eyes

There are travels to all parts of the world. Some to exotic destinations, others to bustling cities; travels that give people lots to talk about for they have experienced the many views and cultures along the way. My travels lately have been back to my hometown. A place called Pakistan.

The moment I mentioned where I've been headed, there would be little inclination to read ahead. In your mind you will have already formed a mental image of Pakistan according to yesterday's news and you may for an instant feel worried for me, though you will certainly not be inclined to read ahead. For it is Pakistan, what could possibly be so wonderful about that?

Fact is I feel your aversion. Though despite all its vices, I also carry a pride in my nation. For, in it I see a treasure trove, a haven of diverse cultures, sound artistic beauty and those little things that make up a profound bigger picture.

It’s the man on the colorfully dressed up cart, pulling it across the hordes, it’s the drifting mother on the street nestling child under a canopy set with her most vibrant dupatta and it’s even the quaint little shops and cafes that are a fusion of ethnicity and the modern world. There is much to admire, apart from the military structure that posts on a roundabout.

Chai and spices and all things lovely, on this trip we experienced a place called Pipri. A fueling spot for all truckers who would line up for their turn at the pump. As you will have read from my previous post, the trucks in Pakistan are no ordinary sort; they tend to mystify an onlooker with the intricacy, art and spectacular gaudiness. Pipri would have been a bland oil field on our way to a rural town called Gharo, if it hadn’t been for the great wall of colorful drama.

Color I find in every sight I see, like delightful gems in that treasure trove I speak of. Along a road in another sweet little town, stalls lined up, piled high with fruits of the season with the only reality differentiating each stall being the varying forms of decoration. Then beside the stalls, others lined up with desi roses from the season, the smell another story to tell. Turn around the corner to find a market bustling with crowds, music, street food and people selling clothes and ethnic finds.

In a nation where there are many on the line to tear us apart, life on the streets makes one realize those things we are proud to express. There are certainly those apparent wonders that one could admire, and then there are the places where life happens, where the salient vibe allows you to sink into a state of appreciation. I may not have changed your perceptions formed over years of pessimism from the media, though I do hope you stayed with me till the end of my musings. Which makes me hopeful that one day you will see my hometown, Pakistan from my eyes.

Colorful wheels

Come across a branded bus or truck on your way to work recently? Ads communicating a bright future, dinner at the Burj or perhaps even a big fat bank promise. And when you step inside that bus, or if you happen to have a peep at the driver of that truck, what is it you will see? A person looking as stale as the ad on his vehicle, that’s for sure.

The streets of Pakistan however, have a different story to tell. They don’t call it a colorful country for no reason. I speak of that truck you will see every few meters, that will turn your head, reminding you just how colorful the country can get.

Do people living in Pakistan get fascinated with these vehicles? I can tell you one thing for sure; the people driving those trucks or buses were the ones who carefully selected them from a variety of other such trucks and buses, with the key criteria for selection being the extent of art that can be seen. Unlike the stale ads of glory and toothpaste in other parts of the world, these vehicles have intricacies and depict a style that is true to the nation’s fabric.

Wearing an attire much like the elaborate ethnic fashions of rural Pakistan, bursting with color, bright and shiny, each truck or bus driver's aim is to drive the most decorated truck or bus. That, for them, is a sense of pride.

Glitzy at night, it moves along the stretches of road, jingling and jangling the jewels it’s adorned in. A good looking bus is what will attract those who will use it; no real bus stops, just the simple spotting of a colorful chunk of ethnicity driving down the road. For those who don’t use it, they sit back and take in the sheer beauty that makes up their roads.

As for the tourists, they will certainly pick up a truck or bus souvenir from the airport while on their way out of Pakistan.

Independence day

The world can go about celebrating their victories all they want. There were only moments of sheer sadness that enveloped me. While everyone around commemorated their liberty, I tucked myself into a corner to welcome slow and steady depression. It was the ruthlessness of it all; the horrific history of why we were victorious in the first place.

What good has our country’s independence done for us? What, besides broken families and heartbreaking stories of torture and rebellion amidst the innocent people? It’s patriotism, they say. Do they not know; are they oblivious to all else that sure seems un-pretty?

Would I wear my country’s flag and dance about in such frivolous merry when I see my country still stands in a third world? The corrupt politicians wear smiles on their faces whilst our countrymen wear daggers over their hearts against those who are but their brothers. Do I make merry because this piece of God’s land was handed over to some dirty fools to whom power was the next of kin?

I understand I put a bitter lemon in all the good cheer. But do we rejoice because a few good men fought for a country that could have prospered well enough had it maintained its ground? Mahesh Bhatt says: ‘Freedom is a precious feeling’. For us, freedom is the front desk to hypocrisy. The fight for freedom was in actual the upward step to popularity and so they went on with their moping yarns of extricating themselves from a country that needed independence from only the white folk.

From then on, the brutality beamed and the blood made lines on sweaty foreheads. How frantic the land might be to find such color in its core as the crimson departed from the people’s hearts, surging rivers on the dusty parchments or wet grasses. Will my green undo the redness of what was?

My country

Is my country cursed? Helpless, people wade in the waters of the rain, children hung loosely over their heads. Their hope of travel, the rooftops of beaten buses and who’s to say these too won’t tiresomely succumb to the fatigue of the nation? Like the flooding year that passed, we drown deeper into the abyss of no return, of utter destruction that would take years to rebuild. And as the aid pulls into the realm of our catastrophe, we pile on our debt only to see a fraction of the aid we were in reality sent.

I do think my country is cursed. For now, the dengue feasts on the stagnant rain waters. It breeds and grows its bullish army and then unexpectedly forces its way into the blood of people. There is no stopping a pest of nature; it is a wrath that we can simply stand and watch.

The country has got to be cursed. The way we beg and plead for electricity, there is no denying that we have a system as warped as a hyenas laughter. Homes go for days without the flicker of a light-bulb, load-shedding they say. Upon which a few lucky ones invest in the generator and the many unlucky ones end up rioting, kicking up dust at the lucky ones.

There is no doubt that my country is cursed. Out of all nations it had to be mine that wore the terrorist’s badge. We proudly supported a super nation that turned around to hand us one tight slap. Taking into our fold some truly messed up folk, we gave them home, we gave them bread and we all soon became the khan’s that got held at airports.

Do you believe our country is cursed? We can’t even play a decent game. Drugged and devious, the men representing our country walk on to the field, bats in hand and gaalis on their tongues. The rest of the country sits in the crowd all ready to cheer, soon to find those heroes on the field sold us out. So the cheer that was starting out from within our bellies comes out in the form of an angry broil.

Don’t think it’s cursed? Let’s talk about the random shootings, lootings and vandalism amongst our own. Illiteracy looms and pair that with savage hearts, we have the stage set for some rasping crime. They do not know better, they perhaps have no choice but how does crime fit in the nation’s already perfectly disrupted state of affairs?

We are a country that remains cursed. We struggle to educate people when they don’t want to be educated. We struggle to vote for better men when our votes are disregarded. We struggle to introduce a better way of life when all they want to do is burn the buildings down.

Wanting to progress, we fall back by years. Calamity after calamity, crookedness after crookedness; we seem to be content with the struggle and life of mediocrity.

Fifty cookies just for me

She made me cookies! A full box of those gooey, chocolate chippy yums that tend to melt in your mouth so that, for a good few moments, you are unable to part your lips with the fear that some chocolate will dribble out. And God forbid it does dribble out, what a waste of such perfection.

So how did those cookies come to be? Not very easily I must say. My soul-mate aunt, and the name gives it away as to what effect she has on me, was finally flying down to see us all. It being open-house at hers the day before her travel, she had batches of cookies in and out of the oven. There was one box of dough though, that she had kept away with the beautiful and generous intention of baking them for me. After the evening was over and the guests had all left to their respective destinations, soul-mate aunt baked that last batch of cookies. Heard there were about thirty of them that she finally packed up in a cookie tin before she shut eye for the night.

That would have been the box of cookies I received, you would think. But here’s where there was a twist in the story. Throw in her tweenage son, our other tweenage cousin who also happens to be of the male gender and with the two of them put together, a big fat charge of appetite. In the middle of the night when all things evil rise, the two little devils snuck into the kitchen to devour my box of cookies!

Come morning, bright and early, ready to head to the airport in an hour, soul-mate aunt heads for the kitchen to carry the box of cookies she thought she had so proudly managed to save for me. Little did she know of the rats sneaking about her kitchen not too long after her head hit the pillow. Box in hand; she alarmingly realized it felt rather light. Open to see, five cookies apologetically staring back up at her!

A fuming soul-mate aunt and just an hour before they’re all off to the airport, she held the side of her kitchen counter, taking a moment to think of what it is that she should do. Any one of these could have been the answer to her troubles right then – tell her niece that she couldn’t bring her cookies this time, buy some cookies from the bakery on the way to the airport, say she tried and tried but the cookies just wouldn’t turn out right. But may I say, this is soul-mate aunt we’re talking about and with the heart and soul that she is made up of, baking up a fresh batch of cookies from scratch was the only answer out.

That’s right. That’s exactly what she was going to do. So, rolling up her sleeves as though going in for battle, she finally said, ‘now, let’s start with butter.’

Candlelight

Candlelight got me warm and fuzzy
It's shadow a similar tune

That flicker of light in the dark of night

A sudden calm that became of me

While tomorrow is another day in the making

On this night I drifted to some years ago

The sound of mum in the kitchen

Dad turning up Jim Reeves

My brother, a constant pest of a funny man

My sister, a sweet, little pumpkin pie

Those years are like the flame that twitched

Memories that danced away their feet

I sat there by the candlelight

A sudden calm the became of me

Summer and kids

The heat is on. Summer is very much here and many of you will be getting ready for your kids’ summer vacations; in a way looking forward to it, but mostly dreading the very thought of it. Especially for the stay-at-home moms, it’s perhaps going to be that trying time that turns from ‘I’m going to get some quality time with my kids’ to ‘I’ve had enough of these kids’.

While the fun moments will be captured on your digital cameras to add to your frame wall after the summer runs out, you don’t want those pictures to remind you of how you struggled your way through it all. As you will very well be aware, kids will be kids and there’s only so much we can do to get them to behave well during their summer time off. In fact saying that in itself makes me shudder at what the ladies have in store. Muddy bicycles in and out of home, wet bottoms on the sofas after a day out at the pool, toys, toys and more toys. ‘Mom, what are you making for lunch?’, ‘Mom, can Susie and Jim and Lydia come over?’, ‘Mom, Alan’s throwing booger at me!’ - Are we really relying on ‘Alan, stop that now’?

Guess not, which is why I’d like to share with you a few areas that we could look into, in order to ready the home up for the kids; make it child proof.

Invest in some plastic cups and plates – IKEA is the place to go. Instantly adding the summery tones to your kitchen counters, these unbreakable plates and cups are a must have with kids constantly running around the house with them.

Food calendar – So that you don’t go crazy preparing ten different things based on each one’s requests every time you enter the kitchen, sit the kids down and draw out a quick food calendar. Dedicate days of the week to each child, the kids can pre-decide what they’d like everyone to eat on ‘their’ day, ultimately making your trips to the kitchen more organized.

Snacking shelf in the fridge – Set up a shelf in the fridge within the child’s reach and replenish it with cold cuts, cheeses, spreads, fruit and all. Breads in the bread basket and cookies in a cookie jar, encourage the kids to make their own snacks, to be had in their plastic plates.

Dedicate a wall for scribbles – this may sound funny, but the kids would have a ball of a time knowing their mom just allowed them to paint, scribble and crayon up an entire wall! When summer’s out and the kids are back to school, if you like you could give the wall a good paint wash to cover up the drama.

Open out some flat-woven rugs - Fold up the heavy Afghan rugs and bring out the child-friendly, easy to wash, flat-w

oven dhurries. They’ll cool the floors for the summer and would be easy to clean up or turn over when kids go spilling away.

Out with the crystal, in with the galvanized look – To avoid the kids reaching out for your crystal and china pieces, carefully tuck them away for the summer. Instead, allow the outdoors into your home. Welcome galvanized pails and shrubs on your shelves or you could even dry up the shells your kids collected at the beach and toss them on to a galvanized platter.

Hope the tips were helpful, wishing you a fun-filled and sane summer.

Cupcake Tea-cosy from Huffy's Cabin





Have one customized for yourself today!

Sweet smelling home

Ever experienced that moment when the faintest scent brings alive a long-lost moment in your life? That’s because the sense of smell is so well-connected to one’s brain, certain smells stick to the mind, creating a lifelong association to that place or time.

This brings me to the smells we experience upon entering someone’s home; usually smells you will never forget. Whether you are crunching your nose or taking in a deep breath of freshness, that change in air when moving from outside the entrance to inside the entrance is what you will immediately classify as pleasant or foul.

The truth is every home carries a scent. There are some pleasant smells that don’t need to be tampered with, in which case they can be left to linger in all corners of the home without the need for incense burners or candles. For instance, homes with regular fresh baking wear the sweet smell of sugar and cinnamon and that’s, without doubt an enjoyable smell to be around.

However there are some smells that need a bit of treating. Cooking with spices can be a bit tricky where the air may need to be cleared of garlic and pickle based whiffs. Or the smell from pets at home, even bathroom stenches that develop over time; these are certainly smells your home can do without.

First and foremost, keeping the house clean is golden. It’s all about combating bad odor before it gets out of hand.

• Don’t let dirty laundry pile up; the stale stench is most unwelcoming. Moreover, regular washes bring a sweet scent of fresh laundry wafting through one’s home
• Spilled milk on the carpet? Pet urine on your sofa? Clean the fabric immediately with soda water and prevent from drying up.
• Ventilate your fridge regularly. Fridges can get smelly rather quickly so habitually wiping them clean with vinegar helps maintain the freshness.
• Cleaning with smelly cloths? Make sure the cloth you’re cleaning with is free from bad odor. Soaking the cloth in lemon juice and then rinsing well tends to remove any stench. Or simply take a fresh cloth, spray it with surface cleaner and then go about some happy cleaning.

For those smells that have already started to foster in your home, here are a few ways to make them disappear.

• Shoes getting smelly? Baking Soda is very good at absorbing odors. Make a sachet with three tablespoons of baking soda in a muslin cloth, tie it up at both ends and leave it in the shoe over night.
• Cotton balls soaked in vanilla extract, placed around the corners of the room; now this is sure to lighten the air.
• Treat stinky drains with baking soda and warm tap water. Even vinegar has a deodorizing effect, pour it down the drain and wait for thirty minutes before you run the tap water.

And once you have a sweet smelling home, keep up the freshness with the help of scented candles and scented oil burners. Pick your favorite scent and light the burner or candle at least once a day to keep the air from turning musty.

No more crunched up noses. Just a loveable air at home and a happy state of mind.

Keep free an from untidy home

Here are some tips to help you keep free from an untidy home.

1. De-clutter - Go through all the stuff at home, there has got to be some that you don’t need or things you no longer use. Then make a clean toss.

2. Organize - Use cute boxes & sort out your belongings based on category, for e.g. craft items in one box, DVDs in another.

3. Stay clean - Cleaning up soon after you’re done is better than piling up the chores, for e.g. wash your single dish after your meal as opposed to waiting till the sink has piled up.

4. Balanced design - Everything has its space, there’s no need to crowd a single corner with everything for e.g. a painting can be hung on the wall opposite the TV instead of having it on the same one.

5. Avoid overcrowding - Work out the available space and then buy your furniture. This does not mean a smaller space cannot handle big furniture. It only means it can take in fewer pieces of the larger sort.

6. Marry a look - Pick a look that suits your style and stick by it. Indulging in a cocktail of styles can make ones space appear confusing and cluttered.

Your coastal inspired home

Who says you need to live by the beach to have a beach inspired home? Just because the view from your balcony is of the next building, does not mean your indoors can’t sway to the tunes of the shore.

Bring home the beach air. Start by refreshing your space.

Go airy, replace your heavy drapes with linen fabrics. Give the walls a clean white wash. Out with the kilms and in with some light colored jute-braided rugs from Pottery Barn.

Indulge in whites & duck-egg blue.

Enlighten it with touches of navy blue and red to add the marine effect. Polish with striped patterns, galvanized pails & marine embellishments.

Sea-shells, nautical symbols, vintage glassware work at bringing the shore to your doorstep.

Check out the nautical set of cushions from Huffy’s Cabin and order yours today.

Or pick from Pottery Barn’s shell and coral embellishments. Even Artikel (Dubai) is a must visit to add the right pieces to your coastal habitat.

You could also decorate with DIY pieces.

Shells as accents – using shells found at the beach, simply wash them over with very hot water and leave them out in the sun, to dry. This will take away any fishy smell and get your shells ready to rest over your mantle-piece or in a large glass vase.

Sea print fabric on your dining table – cut and sew a runner out of a nautical print, place on the dining table with a vase of sand and starfish accents.

Placemats for the perfect coastal lunch – pull out your old placemats and with the help of some glue and string, attach a shell or two to the corner of each.

Vintage bottles from trash – Using empty bottles of wine, these can easily be cleaned out to display as a cluster of bottles. Add a candle in each to light up your space in the evenings.

Corks in a basket – Think you have no use for the corks that come off those bottles of wine? Well, they add the perfect feature when placed in large numbers with some straw, in a rattan basket.

Now, go ahead and enjoy your breezy space :-)

 

From drab to fab

Are you the type who needs an excuse to get out more, because, well it’s just too boring at home? Time to put on your thinking hat so that you can think up what it is about home that bores you. Is it that you have nothing to do? Or is it something that you perhaps are afraid to or don’t care enough to admit? I sadly refer to a dull air at home.

That dullness that settles when one grows tired of looking at the same curtains and same upholstery and same dinnerware. It is that boredom that sets in with the sheer desire for something new. The desire for an uplift of sorts. Here’s a little something to ponder over while you’re reading this write up – point a finger to all the things in your home that you would like to get rid of and those you can do without. Then point a finger to all the things you feel need to be spruced up. And as you point, make a note of it in a diary for that will determine your shopping list for the next couple of days.

Once you’re done with the pointing and the noting, get set to make a clean sweep. Out with the old and in with the new, that phrase was invented for a reason. Set away the unwanted stuff for the flea market that takes place on the first Saturday of every month at Safa Park (#Dubai). Now, start sprucing up your space, sensibly.

Pick a style – Go earthy, go rustic, country or any other. Whatever look you wish for, it will help tune your mind to pick up décor that’s in line with that look. For instance, copper goes well with the rustic appearance along with Persian carpets and mirrored work. If you have retained your furniture, see how you could possibly re-upholster to institute the desired style. While chintz is a country must have, raw silks are the rustic must have.

Color it different – If you were using blues before, change the palette to create a noticeable difference. Don’t forget the style you’re gunning for. Use it to decide the perfect color palette. While pastels are the country favorite, the beiges, browns and greens make up that earthy look. Cushions, rugs, curtains, wall paint, pottery; these are all elements that will allow you to color it different.

Glorify the odd pieces of furniture – If you’re left with odd pieces of furniture in your home that you wouldn’t like to give away, don’t fret. Simply tie them into your décor using similar upholstery. If your couch is floral, take that chintz onto the seating of the grandfather chair. In case of an orphan cabinet that is of a different wood color as the rest of the furniture, give it a paint wash with a complimenting shade if not the same. Try rust red or moss green or mustard yellow; not only do these colors help glorify the odd piece of furniture, they also instantly add freshness to one’s décor.

De-clutter, clean up and spruce up your space. These ought to take your home from drab to fab.

Felted Embellishments from Huffy's Cabin

Autumn Vintage Heart to hang up or accompany you to tea

Green Maple to hang up



Angel Vintage Heart to hang up



Vintage Maple to hang up

Tissue Case inspired by Martha Stewart's basics

More cushions from Huffy's Cabin!

Make them your's - all you've got to do is make a wish! Oh, and get in touch with me while you're at it :-)

Flower Winder

Nautical Set - watch this space for a third addition to this set!

Anchor Baby

Sail Boat with me

Cushions from Huffy's Cabin

Birdie Love

Set of cuties

Butterlilly

Cherry Blossom

Letter M

No more rubbish

At home, do you hide away your waste bins because they may look plain ugly? Tuck them away somewhere no one can see them? And then complain when they become inaccessible?

We usually give waste bins very little thought, they are after all waste bins – for functional purposes and perhaps a little yucky. Little do we realise, they do form part of one’s home furnishing. We can’t always tuck them away, can’t always define an independent corner for them, can’t avoid having them at home. What we can do however is choose a sexy looking bin that adds character to its space.

Time to select some good looking bins. And there are plenty of styles that allow a ‘waste bin’ to be a conversation piece by itself. Take for example this traditional metal bin from IKEA. I’d say it takes me back to the 1950’s with its tin contours and lid-on-the-top style.

There are smaller ones that add some funk into your rooms if you may. These are available in all primary colors, once again IKEA cracks It well.

Vintage bins are in – perfectly contributing to a shabby-chic look at home. Or even baskets with which you can never go wrong. Well at least while they’re not being used for the kitchen sort of rubbish.

Or do the funny and get home a bin from a hotel lobby! Or one from the street! Get creative, get rustic and be daring. This would certainly speak for quirkiness and ingenuity.

We have the styles to make peace with our bins. Now it’s all up to how much rubbish and what kind of rubbish we will be working with in order to decide the perfect match.