Fizzy Drink for Summer

As summer is approaching and the mercury rises, who doesn't like to indulge in nice refreshing cool drinks to quench their thirst!!

Today I have nice fizzy drink, that kids will love and will keep on asking!

Here's what all you need:

A bottle of 7up
Different flavored tang or kool aid ice cubes!

Add the colored ice cubes into your glass, pour 7up over it and enjoy!

I love to see those colored cubes and how prettily they stand in the glass and that's all for today folks ^__^!

After Bath Wrap Around

A sewing tutorial that is very very long over due, and recently I found its been staying in my drafts not published yet, a simple and easy way to turn a towel and some fabric into a stylish after bath wrap for you, your child, a friend, or family member.  It’s easy !

You'll need: A terry cloth and 1/2 yard of nice cotton fabric. Be absolutely sure the towel will wrap, and overlap, around the body, I made a small one for my lil princess.

Create pleat by cuttin 5 inch strip of fabric, fold fabric like a sandwich edge to edge,run strip of fabric through sewing machine and pinch pleat every inch. Attach pleat to the side of your wrap that will overlay and show on top. Or you can pinch and pleat while attaching to the wrap in one go like I did.

Measure the length for the straps then by folding it over, and with a simple seam, creating some straps for the shoulders and attach it to the wrap.

Here is the after bath wrap that I made for my lil princess, but ended up giving it as a gift for little cousin ^__^, hope you liked.

Linking up at these parties.

Quilled Bookmark's For A Cause

I had promised you all I had got a good news to share with you all in my previous post and here it is.

One of my school friends whom I haven't met for 10+ years and was my class mate during prep school, we got connected via one of the social networks out there. I was so happy to meet her and enjoy the nice chat we had together. Going down the memory lane of the times we spent together and the fun we had. And she likes working for NGO's and do lot of charity works. 

She have started a beautiful idea on to promote reading for children especially the less privileged, Beautiful Minds Book Marks, book marks that are hand made with love to light a child's life through reading and have got a wide variety of bookmarks to select from. 

source

After seeing my quilled works photos, she requested that I make few book marks for her. I was overwhelmed and happy as it was the first time anyone had asked me to make a quilled piece for them. 

The bookmarks are made on 6"x 1.75" for the bottom base and topped with 5.5"X 1.25" base where the quilled design is made. 

source

The bases were made from Textured Jewels Mat Stack by Diecuts With A View and the quilling strips were varied from quilled creations to lake city (one of my favourite), and few local purchases.

The only challenge I had making was to have different designs and colors for each piece, as she wanted variety, other than it was enjoyable.

Here's a closer look for the few pieces I made.

 Two things I liked most was the creativity involved when making these pieces and getting to meet my friend personally and having a quality time with her which i wish we can do often although we are borders across hopefully again one day insha Allah.

If you liked my pieces and need me to create one for you don't hesitate to ask, I would be more than willing to make :).

Till next time, take care

Linking up to these blogs:

Not just a housewife, The Trendy Tree House, Colours Dekor, Create With Joy, {NIFTY THRIFTY THINGS}, Craft-O-Maniac, A Diamond in the Stuff, Crafty Texas Girls, Making The World Cuter, Today's Creative Blog, Mercy Ink

Orange Yogurt Cake

Orange cake has been lingering in my mind to try out for awhile, using fresh ingredients not the ready mix you get on the supermarket shelf. I feel all those boxed cake mix has some kind of artificial taste in  it, that's how I feel and am not much of buyer of it either!! The recipe I tried turned very soft and fluffy and very "orangey" taste too :)!!  Ingredients: 2 cups all-purpose flour 3/4 cup granulated sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 eggs, room temperature 2 tsp vanilla extract 1 cup yogurt 1-2 cup orange juice(I use fresh-squeezed) 1 tbsp orange zest 1/4 cup butter or oil Combine all the dry ingredients and set aside. In a bowl beat sugar and eggs together till white and fluffy. Add the butter/oil, grated orange peel, and vanilla. Add yogurt, juice, and dry ingredients to the egg mixture gradually. Beat until the batter is all mixed well. Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin (with a hole in the middle) and bake it in a pre-heated oven 180C for 50/60 minutes until gold and and firm. The cake tastes best when it's completely cooled and is 2 - 3 days old. Adding the orange zest gives the twingy taste of the orange and a nice aroma too.

Family Home and Life, Guest Post

Happy Monday everyone, hope you are all having a great day !

I am over at the Family Home and Life blog today sharing how to make lamp shade using yarn and balloons!

DIY Lamp Shade Tutorial from Mon Petite Monde for Family Home and Life! 

It's a fun project where the outcome is marvelous and all you need is materials that are easily accessible.

So head on to Family Home and Life and enjoy the post :)!

Blueberry Moist Cake

March has been pretty exhausting month for me, not much of posting has been done in here. My lil princess was down with fever and that was followed by chicken pox, الحمد لله, she's almost recovered from that. That said, and yes am back on broadband connection after one year, so much relieved when am on the net with a free mind!!
You see I don't actually like to make anything out of my comfort zone, and I mean when I make a cake or any sweet, fear of how the taste might come out!! As I am not well a person with sweet tooth, although I enjoy baking.
During our last grocery shopping, blueberries and blackberries were tossed in, as these are not items from our usual list. What I found out later was the blackberries were hit and it was emptied in a day or two, but blueberry were staying in the fridge so not to let it spoil and throw away, I made a cake which turned out to be a hit with everyone!! And it turned out nice soft and moist, so here comes my blueberry moist cake.

Ingredients:


2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 to 1-1/2 cup fresh blueberries
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup yoghurt
1/4 cup butter or oil

Using your electric mixer, beat oil and sugar until light and fluffy, add in the eggs, milk and yoghurt along with the vanilla extract. Mix all the dry ingredients together and add the blueberry in the dry mix, making sure that the berries are well coated with the flour before adding into the batter, that is an important factor so that the berries won't sink. Add the dry mix along with berries to the batter and beat until lighter in colour and well mixed.
Spread mixture into prepared pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes until it is risen, feels firm to the touch and springs back when lightly pressed. Cool for 10 minutes, then take out of the tin. Leave to finish cooling on a wire rack.

This Blueberry cake is easy and fast to mix, moist and delicious to eat. It is delicious with a cup of tea or cold glass of milk(my favourite ^__^), or served as an impressive dessert with cheesecake topping :)!!

Flower Magnets

When Alli Bartkowski of Quilled Creations new book Quilled Flowers was out, I simply had to put my hand on it as it was very interesting and beautiful from its cover itself. A lovely mix of projects for all types of quillers and crafters and covers different kinds of flowers. And I got it from Fantasy Hobbies, who got it me for fast and delivered within one week although they didn't have it in stock locally!! Its a wonderful online shop and caters for the crafters especially in the UAE, and there service is very reliable and worth trying!! 

Well you see the above said story was almost a year back!! and its only now I got to try out the beautiful flowers in it which were turned into fridge magnets!!

Before it was always 3D fruits that adorned the magnets, but now its flowers. You can different sizes and shapes of magnets at DAISO, one shop I don't get tired spending my time there for all the wonderful discoveries and knick knacks i find on each visit!!

Amaryllis, with half circles and marquise, and the way the stamens stands looks almost realistic!! 

Yellow Zinnina, the off centered petals and the cupping technique gives this flower a full bloom beauty!!

One of my favourite, the black and white anemone blossom!!!

Love the way the magnets look in my kitchen and how they brighten up my fridge with these beautiful blossomed flowers!

Honeyed Dates and Carrot Cake

Date cakes are one of my obsessions, never get tired of having them, it's my all time favourite. It's taste is simply irresistible. I had honeyed dates that was gifted to my lil princess from his office and it was too sweet for me just to have it like that, so what perfect excuse to make the date cake :)!!

Without much pondering, here comes the recipe in your way.

 So here's the recipe for the cake:

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup granulated sugar (you can reduce depending on your sweet teeth ^__^)

1 cup honeyed dates

1 cup grated carrot

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 eggs, room temperature

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup butter or oil

In your Kitchen Aid or Kenwood or whatever brand you have ^__^   using the "K" beater mix all the ingredients together. beat on low for 2 mins and then on high speed another 2 mins.

Pour the cake batter in the prepared baking tin, bake at 180 degrees for one hour  or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool 5 minutes on a wire rack.

You can also add in few chunks of dates as well as raisins if you like. Here's my cake I always enjoy it with a glass of milk for my early morning breakfast :)!!

Till next time, take care...

Mirror, Mirror on the wall...

As I told in my previous post I had family members the past month visiting me and I wanted to give a gift for them as I am now in "Gift only handmade", so I made this delicate and flowery mirror. And yeah this post is over due, got blogger block in between my PC crashing down, so here is the idea sit back and enjoy :)!!

For this quilling work these shapes were used marquises and tight circle rolls for the flower, half circles for the leaf and scrolls as side designs.

Marquises ready to bloom into flowers. 3 mm or 1/8"quilling paper strips for the flowers in the shades of red and grape vine purple.

 For the leaves it was leaf green strips and for the center cut the 3 mm strip into a narrow strip around 1.5 mm in the shades of white for the red flower and yellow for the purple one.

All ready and set for assemble, love the glow of colors in there :)!!

The mirror used for this project was bought from IKEA, yes favorite stop form mirrors and frames, I had whipped put few of these during the sale season, they're extremely cheap.

 It's always easier to work and assemble when you have a puddle of glue next you.

Felt it was empty and on the opinions of my dear ones I added few blings on to it...

And voila here's the final product, hope you liked it? My aunt was really happy to receive and the smile on her face when she got it made my day ;)!!

As she was travelling I bubble wrapped it for her for safe carrying and not to worry about the quilled work getting damaged.

That's all for now and I have got an exciting news to share with you all but till next time...