Hello today is MY SITS DAY…

This digital collage personalized with Smilebox

Hello everyone I want to extend a warm welcome to all of you. Thank you so much for visiting my blog it means a lot to me… So make you self comfortable… My blog is about myself and projects I do with my kids… I do enjoy living in New England even though it is bit colder here than in VA.

I have to write this story when I went to the US Embassy in Sri Lanka about 13 years ago. My visa officer asked me do you know how cold Minneapolis, Minnesota in winter? My answer to that question was I think I am going to find out by myself… she laughed… I was 24 newly married came to US as a Montessori Teacher to work in a school in Minnesota. Since then I have travelled a bit in US including the mid-west and little bit in GB. I grew up in Sri Lanka some of you might known it as Ceylon. You can clearly see I love traveling… other than all my crazy interests…

At Present I am staying at home and going to school… and promoting my fun little business…
I want to take this opportunity to give a big thank you to SITS for making a wonderful, strong, community for all the bloggers. It is a wonderful community for bloggers to connect with other bloggers.
Same note a big thank you goes to CK from bedtimetales…. for introducing me to SITS…

Once again thank you all for visiting my blog I will let you continue browsing to find more about me and my interests…

Quote of the day “never stop to trying to improve yourself”

Enjoy!

First Frost comes to us with Relocation…

 
We had our first frost… it’s been super cold this couple of mornings. We have been really busy with school projects, homework, BSA, and Library time for little Nicolette.

Anyways with all these it was time to relocate our evergreens from east side of the garden to Westside of the garden. The local landscaping guys did a great job.

Now all we can do is hope that they will survive this hard winter. I have finished planting our yellow and white garden. I loved how our butterfly bush greets us in the morning next to the fire hydrant with the daylilies when we step out from our house.

Oh! I forgot to mention that I got so lucky and one of the great gardeners in our neighborhood gave us whole bunch of daylilies. They are all in the ground nothing no more planting for us till SPRING and this time I mean it.

Quote of the day “use every moment skillfully”

Enjoy!

Planting Garlic… because simply now is the time…

 
 
 
I enjoy reading art of doing stuff… she has a great humor but she does the work with all the details you can think and imagine of. The person behind this beautiful creative blog is Karen who lives in Canada. Yesterday she literary kick me out of my bed with my little one to plant garlic and we did!

As you know I take any excuse to plant in my yard we were happy and lucky we did have some garlic in the refrigerator.

I know they are not organic or from the farmers market. They were the garlic from the regular grocery store. Little Nicolette was watching me what I am doing separating all the garlic and placing them in the cereal bowl.

We took them outside and decided to plant them among the bulbs and the perennials who know who will get lucky the bulbs, perennials, or the garlic we are to find out this spring.

Since she has the practice planting bulbs we decided to dig the ground to make some holes mine are not pretty as Karen but you get the idea. Fun part of this project is this could be a kid friendly activity to talk about many aspects of planting.

We did not see any worms but I do know I have ton in my garden… my question is do they smell garlic?

Quote of the Day “be a beginner"

Enjoy!

Happy Cake...

 
I struggle with little Nicolette on Friday’s she has got into this routine to bake with me on Friday’s. Part that I struggle really is making healthy choices for myself and my family.

Well Nicolette thinks we have to bake every Friday I love it after a crazy week of school and other work. Baking is definitely a very productive way to unwind. I find baking sometimes could be therapeutic depending how your little one wants to help during the whole baking process.

I remember the very first time we baked together when Panduka came home Nicolette was quiet happy to show off the cake and enjoy it with the whole family.

Yes, she is learning the values of enjoying and sharing food with family. This act brings everyone together at the table, unwind, look upon the day we spent, and perhaps to create memories.

Well, here is a recipe I found from here that we love very much, I learned how to make the ribbons needs more practice, cake was delicious. I am looking ways to make changes small changes in food we share at our table, which we have come together to love & be thankful…

Quote of the Day “Live like a child"

Enjoy!

Clorox's Bleach Messy Moment in Life

I received information about Clorox’s Bleach It Away campaign and am sharing my messy moment for the chance to win prizes from The SITS Girls. To learn more about the messy moment program, check out www.BleachItAway.com. Sharing your story on the Clorox fan page gets you entered for the chance to win $25,000 and daily prizes, and you can grab a coupon for Clorox® Regular Bleach.

This was a very awkward moment to me. This happed long time ago my son was a toddler we were not ready to potty train him. However I was a tutor at this time and had a student coming in for tuition just before bedtime for him. I am done with his dinner and giving him a bath so I can get him to bed.

I was working in a very tight schedule by myself. After I laid his PJ’s on the bed I hurried to the tub to pick up his toys… After picking up few I stumble upon his poop and very sweetly he is using his toddler language to pick clean up his bath toys…

Yes, it was a CLOROX TTIME… I ended up starting my tuition session late but everything else was cleaned THANKS to CLOROX…

Quote of the Day "indulge in joy"

Enjoy!

Bird watching…

We have been working hard this summer cleaning our yard. Good news is we can see our property line before we couldn’t it was an overgrowing mess. Thanks to every one Panduka and Niegel we have been working like crazy to clean up the yard.

I have been working in the backyard; along the property line cleaning we had several forsythia bushes. Since we wanted to maintain a small flowering garden we have control the growth of the forsythia bushes. At least for the time we like to think that we have control the forsythia bushes.

Now that we have done most of our planting the bulbs as well; things are looking good. I meant yard looks much cleaner. Since I have done planting and beds are not fully covered, I meant with mulch the soil is exposed. We are blessed with a lot of worms in our land hope this is a good thing.

When I was doing my dishes I saw group of birds. Of course with much excitement I went and grab my camera and started taking pictures. I stayed inside afraid to go outside thinking the group of birds will fly away. I took some pictures from inside I do apologize for the clarity of the pictures but I hope you can see them and spot them. There were cardinal, woodpeckers, and finches and many more that I had no clue I have couple of books about birds I would love to get them out soon.

I was simply elated with flock of birds visiting our backyard and digging for worms…

Quote of the day “a 20 minute meditation can help you see things afresh"

Enjoy!

Roses… I was not ready to say goodbye…

 
These are from a flower bouquet that I received for my B’day. I was not ready to throw these guys. However the whole bouquet was ready to retire. I threw all the greens and kept the roses.

As I was cleaning dead stinky greenery corner of my eye stopped at the milk vases that was sitting on the floor. Just like a light bulb went off… I decided to have my roses in my newly claimed milk vase.
I made roses into ball shape arrangement and placed a rubber band close to head of the ball. Then I placed the stems on the cutting board and cut them really short.

Finally played with it a little bit to arrange it more eye pleasing manner. Placed the flowers in the vase on my dining table and enjoyed during dinner.

Quote of the Day “create a routine that soothe the soul"

Enjoy!

My New Finds…

 
 
Well I promised to myself that I am going to go to few garage sales. Guess what my first one happened to be this FALL. I found my first milk glass collection for $2.00. Yes, it was a deal I could not resist. One of the reasons I was looking for vases was I do not like fake flowers any more. I am done with them.
I have work so hard this summer preparing my garden I would love to bring in some flowers that I have planted.

I am making small changes, the humongous crystal formal vases I have are great… I hardly use them… but I wanted few dainty vases to show few flowers natural flowers on display. Reason one is I might not have a huge harvest of flowers this year may be later… so I can use my formal vases.
I was making room in my nest as I have plenty of room… remember our new old tiny house… with a fairly big garden.
Reason number two is the antique value in these vases. These vases go back all the way to 16th century. They are so many versions and many years they have come back. They do not go out in style. This may be one factor I think they are fairly low in price for the antique value.

However I am happy with my first purchase paid really a very low price for these guys… Can’t wait till spring to load these little containers with pretty flowers… Do you bring flowers in-doors, if so how would you arrange them to add some character to your décor?

Check back in my next post how to do just that…

Quote of the day “

Enjoy!

Enjoy the last bit of summer…

 
I wanted my kids enjoy the last bit of summer with all the summer berries and sweetness. I initially saw this recipe at http://www.thesleepytimegal.com/ , she adapted from Ina’s Cooking show. If you want to savor the last minute of the summer with your kids you can get it the recipe from here . This is a lovely simple way to enjoy summer berries.

However you can substitute anything seasonal. I received a bag of apples from my neighbor and I did the same thing. I will post the recipe on how I make apple crostata. Simple recipe to make but delicious with a little bit of vanilla ice-cream on the side…

Quote of the Day “ take joy in serving others"

Enjoy!

How to dress up your chandelier for the holidays…

 
Halloween is one of my favorite holidays that I like to celebrate with my family and friends. I have added a collection of Halloween decorations to our house. This year I decided to add some holiday to our chandelier…

Berries I just love the look but it stinks… They come in so many colors...

Quote of the day “live with passion"

Enjoy!

Dinner under $5.00…

 
 
We went to Boston for dinner at Penang; we love Tai food very much. Penang offers a great ambiance and the food is phenomenal. I love their noodle soup bowls. I would love to learn how to make it home.
Whenever I go to Boston I try to go to Chinese supermarket because this is where I stock up my Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean sauces… they are less expensive than from the local grocery store. I find most of the time same or better name brands not that I read Japanese, Korean, or Vietnamese but I can see the differences. Some are great on labeling in English as well.

Well I bought my stock of sauces and I bought some Bok Choy. This is a wonderful vegetable with crispy, bitter, crunchy, and with great colors. I know I love the colors of the vegetables.

Here is my simple Bok Choy recipe…
1 Tablespoon Dark Soy Sauce
2 Tablespoons Light Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon of Plum Sauce
1 teaspoon of Sesame Oil
2-3 teaspoons of rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon of vegetable or olive Oil
3-4 Garlic Cloves chopped
Medium slice of ginger chopped
Medium onion chopped
7-8 Bok Choy heads cleaned vertically sliced
How to
Mix in a bowl, dark, light, plum sauce together and set aside. Add the Vegetable oil and sesame oil to the pan medium high heat add garlic and ginger until slightly golden brown. Now add onions sauté them until golden brown bring the heat to high and fry them for few seconds now add your rice wine and listen to the beautiful sound it makes… get back to cooking…

Add your Bok-Choy and sauté it until it begins to wilted at the very beginning of this process add your sauce mixture and cook it for 15 seconds if you like to have them crunchy cook less. Serve immediately with warm white/brown rice

Quote of the day “make food from scratch whenever possible”

Enjoy!

Raising Nicolette without a Pet Dog…

 
 
 
I know this sounds funny… I grew up in Sri Lanka having a pet dog. Matter of fact in my childhood memory I remember having three pet dogs not at the same time. You know when one goes away after the morning period my mom would get another one. I loved dog as a pet not a cat, don’t ask me why?
Well let’s put it this way I am not a cat person.

I have serious allergies as well I know some of you might say you can get dog with hair. Seriously the amount of hair that I shed I don’t think I need to have company for that.

For 13 years I was quiet OK to say to my son we are not going to have a pet dog or a cat he was not that cool about that because this boy LOVED dogs. He would take care of my neighbor’s dog, walked him, pick up his poop, fed him when they were out of town or work.

The story was I was quiet confident to say no to him get him a huge fish tank and a hamster, and one time a bunny actually some of them were class pets from my classroom.

Little Nicolette here is another story, when she is up and walking on the first level no one can walk their dog because as soon as she lays her eyes on the dog she would follow the dog from inside the house peeking through the windows. If we go for a walk she would make dogs inside their houses crazy she has some powers I really mean it they go nuts and starts barking. So I had to ask all the strangers if it is OK, if my daughter pets their dog… Now we pet all the dogs in our neighborhood from Wendy, Brady, and many more I cannot keep up with their names. In return we decided to offer them treats little Nicolette loves it… so when I go grocery shopping we buy dog treats but we don’t own a dog yet… but I can see in future this will change… my son who understand the whole ball game taking care of a dog is a lot of responsibilities actually fine with the fish tank…

Quote of the Day “bu surprise books for kids"

Enjoy!

Our Harvest Wreath…

 
 
What do you do with your old silk flowers…? I am in the phase of retiring silk flowers that’s mean planning to bring in fresh flowers in more often. I always liked fresh flowers I take them to the temple, visit friends, family, and neighbors.

But I also owned some silk flowers that I have bought few years back and continuously blooms in my living room. I know they add color but after a while you get tired of the look. So I owned these still bright beautiful sunflowers. I am a sucker for sunflowers because I find them full of character. I do not own them in my garden yet… and the second reason I like them because my son was born in Midwest and you can see fields of sunflowers in the Midwest. I have not visited the sunflower fields during my stay in Midwest. However it brings back the memories of tiny Niegel… Since we are tired of these sunflowers I decided to make a harvest wreath using them…

What you need
Silk flowers sunflowers or any kind of flowers and leaves
Hay stack wreath
Glue gun
Wire cutters
and creativity…

It’s fun to see the second life of these big sunflower blooms… I got so many compliments from people passing our home.

Quote of the day “turn off TV and turn on life”

Enjoy!

Daffodils

 
Lately I have been feeling better… this reminds me of all the work I have that needs to be done. I enjoy spring bulbs and I bought close to 120 bulbs. I know what was I thinking… Well I cannot get enough of daffodils and paperwhites…
When I was growing up in my elementary school I took part in a drama yes, I did and I had to recite The Daffodils by William Wordsworth (1770-1850) below are the words I have memorized and recited it in front of all the parents… Not only that I have visited his house Cockermouth, Cambria, England. This is a beautiful country side… I can see why he was attracted the natural life…

"Daffodils" (1804)
I WANDER'D lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretch'd in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude
And then my heart with pleasure fills
And dances with the daffodils.

Little Nicolette will be listening to this… There are things I would love to teach my kids which I enjoyed as a kid. I am sure you all have something special that pass to your kids… well I hope to see and wondered through the clouds of daffodils this spring… I can’t wait to enjoy them…

Quote of the Day “live your life on nature’s time schedule”

Enjoy!

Allergy Season with Pillow Covers…

 
Yes, I have been attack by allergies past week and it has been really bad. I have been sipping herbal medicine, flushing my nose with neti pot, rinsing my throat with salt water, taking over the counter prescription strength allergy medicine and hitting the pillow every night.
So far no improvement I wake up every morning with a throbbing headache but I try to be very productive past week. The weather lately has not been any conducive to improve my health. I saw the sun peaking through the clouds around noon time for very few minutes but soon covered again with the clouds.
Today I finally made two pillow covers to our oversize European pillows. I was very proud with the results. It cost me less than $20.00. But I now have two beautiful pillow cases…

Quote of the day “treat yourself as you would a dear friend”
Enjoy!

How to get Minerals into your Little One’s Diet…

 
 
Since we live in the east coast I have been really good on offering seafood to our kids. I started this very early with my daughter just after she passed her first B’day I offered her little bit of white fish and other shell fish. When I took her to her second year checkup she was all good with her natural minerals and vitamin not lack of anything.

I am very big on providing minerals in natural form as much as I can.
I try to do this to myself too but unfortunately all of us are not the same way with food.

This is a very easy recipe to incorporate shell fish into your diet. Everyone loves pasta so why not incorporate fish into it. This is not only for adults but little one like them as much as we do in our house. Sometimes it’s hard to find left over from this dish. One hint on this if you can grow your own basil because I literally go through my basil so harsh it does not get time to re-cooperates.

You can find the recipe here I did not add crab meat but I have added lobster meat once most of the time we make it without crab and lobster meat but it taste great we all love it and great source of minerals you can get from the shell fish.

Quote of the day ‘eat before you go to super market’

Enjoy!

Pillow Covers made at Home...

 
 
 
I was very much motivated to make some pillow cases after browsing through the bed and bath catalogue, fall 2011. It inspired me to make these beautiful European style pillow covers for a fraction of the cost. I now owned these beautiful pillow cases and not only that I got the practice to make my own pillow cases which I enjoy very much…

Luckily the Waverly fabric was on sale at the fabric store for half of the original price but its getter better with another coupon entire purchase 20% off. So I was able to find a fabric close to the fabric I was looking. I felt like I almost hit the jackpot. I know this sounds crazy but I was not willing to pay $49.00 for two slandered size pillow cases with shipping and handling…
Little Nicolette has been sleeping without pillow cases for a while she has no clue about the pillow cases. I wanted to complete her bedding as she is getting older and phasing out her crib sheets this means I also need to make some full size quilts…

I have no idea how she got so big partially we are to blame offering her a full size bed instead of a toddler bed. Well we cannot keep changing our furniture we do not have an official guest bedroom yet in out new old house.

After measuring her pillows I made these two cute pillow cases from a badge fabric. Funny thing is fabric has some texture I hope she will get use to it if not we turn the pillow other side because the texture is only on one side. I love it and little Nicolette LOVES it…

Quote of the day ‘ask what action you can take to get yourself to your goal’

Enjoy!

Vine Post…

 
Next summer I wanted to add some vines to our garden. So I decided to go with morning glories. I know this is an annual. However to my purple and blue tone garden I think morning glory could add some fun. I get plenty of sun in the morning on sunny days where I am planning to have my post.
I found this book that discusses many interesting garden plans, plants and how to create beautiful gardens with plants. Yes, it a publication of Better Homes and Gardens step b step Ultimate yard and Garden.

I asked Panduka to help me with this project we did this together. I am now anxious to make few more since we have some left over materials from the initial project I am planning to add one or two into our garden may be different heights. I think this could be a great GIFT to an avid gardener. I have come to know few…

My vine post is going to be standing bare this fall and winter but I am hoping have morning glory climb on this post this coming summer I am very excited about this. I am waiting very patiently to see my young garden grow and mature.

Quote of the day ‘put a plant in the windowsill for peace’

Enjoy!

Purple and Blue Garden…

 
 
 
 
Yes, I created a purple garden on the East side of our home. We get so much morning light so I decided to create a purple garden just enough to highlight the features of our old windows which I love very much. I have added three shades of butterfly bushes one is a hybrid version which means it will not grow tall so much. I have seen even yellow butterfly bushes at Lowes this summer amazing.

My neighbor has a white butter fly bush. I have also added purple cone flower, Russian sage, salvia, iris, lavender, sedum (purple) and ornamental grass. I can’t wait to see how they are going to grow and fill in the spaces.

Currently I am watering them twice a week for the new plants to establish the new root growth.
My goal was to plant a less watering flowering patch. I hope I have achieved this goal by selecting these plants. I do not want to add any plants that need regular watering because I am big on conserving water.

I inherited some beautiful pink Rhododendron with my new old house. This pretty pink plant was somehow incorporated to the east side garden. I wanted to mellow it down. I added a hydrangea with pink and white flowers. I planted two ornamental grasses with a low height/growing evergreen. I still want to add more purple and hues of blue into this corner. This is a work in progress but my purple and blue garden is coming together finally.

Quote of the day ‘stay fresh’

Enjoy!