Weekend Floral Arrangements

After ages, T and I resumed our long weekend walks and explored our neighborhood on foot. We were totally exhausted after walking 8 miles but it was a day well-spent.

On the way back, I found a tree branch lying on the road and since I did not buy  flowers this weekend, this was perfect for my weekend floral arrangement - and the colorful vase from Cancun complemented it so well!

Life Lessons from Mom and MIL

Happy mother's day to all the women! I am so lucky to have much love, support and encouragement from not just my mom (who is obviously the best mom in the world just like everyone else's) but also my mother-in-law - I have so much to learn from these amazing women! These are just some of the many things I have learnt from two strong women who surround me. 

From my mother-in-law, I learnt that:

1) Always give 100%. To everything you do. It is amazing how much energy, dedication and effort she puts into everything - from cooking a daily meal with 5 dishes to getting perfection in hanging a wall painting that is 1/4th an inch off to the left which I would never even notice to her sending texts to me everyday in detail. She puts in her best in everything she does. 

2) Always look at the brighter side. And count your blessings. Appreciate the little things in life, they are very important. I love how a small trip to the near-by shop, an ice-cream treat after dinner, us taking 15 minutes from our busy schedule to talk to her, a small text from us makes her so happy and she appreciate us for every small gesture we do. Its the little things that matter and makes one happy, we need to appreciate it and count our blessings. 

3) Patience! Patience!! Patience!!! Ask her the silliest and the most irritating question a million times (which T does often) and she will explain it a million times - Patience! 

4) Tasty and yummy recipes. Her old recipe books that she has collected since her college are a true treasure. Some of the pages are tattered and falling apart, but they smell of the love and warmth put into cooking these recipes and noting them down. And her cooking is finger-licking good! I have copied quite a few recipes from her recipe book and have my own collection of recipes now - even if i won't try all the recipes, its nice to browse and I love that inspired by her old recipe books, I actually write down these recipes in a book using a pen and a paper (so rare in this electronic world) 

5) Always dress well. First impressions matter. - I love her matching bangles and accessories with each outfit! ;-)

My mom taught me some BIG lessons in life - that is some 30+ years of teaching and some major dedication towards her kids! And she was a teacher too - so all that teaching experience and a life long student like me.... so you can imagine ;-). 

1) Age is just a number. You should always be young at heart. Always learn new things. Always be on an adventure - Make your life an interesting one! She was the only female student in her graduation class. She moved from one country to another all by herself, leaving everything behind at the age of 45 - I wish I can such courage to do things and try new adventures when I turn 45. She started running her annual 10k races after she turned 60. Always push yourself to do a little bit more, you will be surprised what all you can achieve - So much inspiration! 

2) Volunteer. Share. Teach. Care. From a young age, she volunteered us to teach the maid's kids in summer holidays. She donated my books to the less privileged. She does a lot of volunteering herself and she taught us to share things with everyone and enjoy the joy of giving and serving others. 

3) Be independent. You can always balance your family and career - just the way she had done it. Its all about balancing and prioritizing different things at different times as life demands - so with a little bit of flexibility, hard work and dedication - everything is possible! 

4) We are all different people. And that is what makes this world interesting. No two people are the same and we all look at things from a different perspective. So lets look at the positive side of people, cause none of us are perfect. If we were all the same - then we would be called Robots!

5) Keep a hobby. All the efforts she made to read Cinderella/ Snow-white/ Bambi a million times just to have us develop a reading habit, from the tennis lessons and music classes she enrolled me at school, encouraging my photography skills and gifting me my first camera at college graduation, tips for gardening and de-stressing after work ... she has always encouraged us to have a passion and follow a hobby. Besides work, it is also important to have fun!

Hello May!

Hello May!

Time for lots of sunshine, summer blooms, long walks, late evenings, mimosas and brunches!

P.S. - Impatients are my favorites for this season because they are low maintenance,  bloom non-stop and  have high impact colors.