How to mange your expenses - Part 1

Hi dear all,

We all have faced a financial crisis at least once in our life. This doesn't necessarily be a major one. But we all know there are times that we want to buy something but we can't. So at that time how trivial it seems later it's a crisis at that time. We feel upset , desperate and even depressed about the situation.

For some of you , you may have been independent financially before but after marriage may have given up your job. So you know even if the husband is providing us and let us do what we want but there can be times we feel guilty for buying something we wanted but not essential to life

As a family we face a lot of strains in times. We are also undergoing such a situation. We bought a new house, and so whole lot of new stuff for the house and our baby is on the way. So many new things so obviously we have to spend a lot all of a sudden.

So here are few steps we did to understand our situation and save some money in the process.


1. Record all your expenses

     Even it's of 1$ we recorded and for what reason we spent. This gave us a big insight as how much      we were spending.
     This led to discover our unnecessary expenses.

      In Pinterest and various blogs there are many formats and forms and tables to fill these. I was             surprised too that some people have them for sale.

      Please don't worry just get a book and start recording in your own way.

       I sometimes kept the bills too. Usually we threw them away but this habit also helped a lot to              analyse further more.

2. Write down your shopping list.

     My husband is a list oriented person. I was not. So even if he demanded I was telling him why            can't you remember the list in your head.
     But now I know the real importance. If not for the list we will be roaming around the aisles in              shops and spent loads on things we didn't plan to buy.

     Have you noticed in supermarkets milk is placed at the very end. So we have to pass all the                  interesting looking goods to reach it. So what happens? We fill the cart with unnecessary things.

     So write a list where you have the guide!

3. Reduce the number of shopping trips.

    Before we started this process we never paid attention how many times we went out for shopping.       We didn't plan. We just went out to buy it when the need arise. So , so much of fuel was lost for          nothing and sometimes had paid for parking unnecessarily.

     So plan your route of shopping before leaving home and you'd be surprised how efficient you              become too in time management.

     Before our weekend was wasted away for shopping. But now we plan and we can have a free time      in week ends.

This is the beginning of how we started to manage our expenses. Let's talk more how we proceeded further.

With much love and hugs!!!!!

Travel - Visit Potato Church in Quebec, Canada

Hi dear all,

It's summer and time to roam around!!!!!!!

Today i will share with you about Potato church in Quebec near Montreal. The real name of the church is "Sanctuaire Notre Dame de Lourdes". Irrespective of your religion it's a place of interest to visit.

This is situated in Rigaud near the border of Quebec and Ontario provinces, Canada. It has an interesting history.

Long time ago the farmers around the area was getting poor harvest from their potatoes. So they have gone and prayed at the church to get a good harvest and have promised to bring their harvest to offer to the church. Next season they have got an abundance of harvest but in their joy they have forgotten their promise. So to teach them a lesson god has turned all the potatoes in to stones.

You can see large round stones towards the right side of the church in one place. Actually an amazing site.

The surrounding is also amazing. There's a picnic area down below.

Hope you all will find time to visit this place if you come around Montreal!!!!!

with Love & Hugs.

Bliss !!!!!

Hi dear all ,

Hope you all are fine.

I was enjoying our new garden. After coming to Canada and living in apartments I missed the gardening and bliss of strolling through flowers.

It's such a glorious feeling to be among flowers.
So come and share the bliss with me.

The entrance.

The hopeful buds.

Full bloom.

These are flowers from a wild runner.

The Dahlia's in full bloom in purple glory.

A sweety awaiting to bloom.

The orange pride.

I should go out again and capture them. There's nothing blissful like playing with the camera.

With love and hugs!!!!!

How to freshen up your home!!!!

Helloooooo,

Have you ever faced the problem that after cooking your house smells of cookery smells?

I have. As we moved to our new house it was a problem too as the smells go into living room too. We use lots of spices so the smells are strong too.

So this is what I used to chase away the smells.

Boil orange peels and cinnamon together. So easy,

You can store your orange peels in a air tight bag in the freezer if you happen to eat lots of oranges!!!!!

This was way better than store bought air fresheners.

I took my pot off the stove and took it around the house too.

This really was a life saver as we had to cook many things for house warming party.

Try it.

Love and hugs!!!!

Salt Dough Crafts !!!!!!!

Hi dear all,

At last I found time to post. As you know I was busy with our move to new house.

Salt dough crafts are so easy to make and can be kept for a long time. You can use them in various ways!!!!!!

So here goes how you can tackle this easy crafting !!!!!!!!!

Ingredients 

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup water (You can adjust the amount of water according to how your dough turns out. For me in the end I have used little less than 1/2 cup )

Mix the ingredients well and make a dough. If the consistency is right it won't stick to the hand or the bowl and can be modeled easily.

I had some tools which are used to decorate cup cakes and used them too.
I have bought them at Dollar store for 1.25 $.

Roll the dough on a flat smooth surface using a rolling pin.

Then using above tools, my imagination I cut out the desired shapes and using my hands shaped out them. You can use your imagination here. Let it run wild.

If you plan to hang your creations or use them as jewelries don't forget to make a hole.

After you have created the shapes bake them in the oven 200 F for about one hour and you are done.

Then you can paint them with Acrylic paint or any kind of paint. You can even mix food coloring to the dough. .

I used my creations to decorate cakes in my style and hung some on wall.

Hope you all will try this specially with kids!!!!!

With love and hugs.

Our move to the New House !!!!!

Hi dear all,

I had a hectic week as we moved into our new house. So there was no time to post anything and still we are settling in. But soon I'll be back in full swing and with full of projects!!!! I'm so excited to start lots of projects in our home!!!!!!!

Here is a glimpse from our house warming.


The movers bringing in the stuff!!!!

The table I prepared. Well this is the counter top in the kitchen as we didn't have the table out yet.

See you all soon.

With much love and hugs!!!!!

A Gift for a Baby Girl - Cross Stitch

Hi dear all,

We went to see a newborn baby girl of one of our friends.

As the part of the gift I wanted to make a special cross stitch work for her.

I found this chart in Pinterest.

The link can be found Here . Serebro-85 .gallery.ru

Thank you very much for sharing the chart for free.




So here you can see my step by step progress.

I used DMC threads except one color and here are the numbers of the threads I used if you'd like to try same colors.

For the heart - Dark Color - 054 (Anchor)
                        Light Color - 819 (DMC)

For the dress - Dark Color - 054 (Anchor)
                        Medium Color - 3716 (DMC)
                        Light Color - 819 (DMC)


First started with the hearts.

I finished one color first and then went on to other colors.

The look when half of the work was outlined.

Completely outlined.

With the words stitched in to place.

Hope this will inspire you to do a cross stitching project!!!!

With love and hugs!!!!

Travel - Montmorency Falls , Quebec, Canada

Hi dear all ,

How are you all?

Do you love travelling and visiting new places? That's one of my favorite things to do in life!!!!!!!!

So as the summer is approaching I like very much to start roaming. But this summer as I'm pregnant we can't travel far. Anyway there are lots of places nearby too!!!! So hopefully I can roam around a bit.

Before I leave for a trip I always like to learn something about that place. So I know what to look for and what to visit and sometimes through my research I came across wonderful places less travelled by others as these were hidden.

So today I decided I will share with you some information about Montmorency Falls which is a waterfall in Quebec , Canada. So if you guys wish to visit you will know in advance some background information.


In French it's called " Chute Montmorency" named in honor of Henri II , Duc de Montmorency who served as viceroy of New France(1620- 1625 )

It's formed by the Montmorency river and is situated about 12 km from the Quebec City (Capital of the province Quebec) in the Montmorency Falls Parc.

The falls are 84 m (276 ft ) high and is higher than Niagara falls by 30 m (98 ft) .
The width is 46 m (150 ft)

You can park at 2 sites. There's a vehicle park at the level of the river up and another at the bottom of the falls.

There are gondolas which will carry you up or down depending on where you parked and the view from them is breathtaking.

Then there's the bridge over the falls which is wonderful.

After that you can take the stairs built to go down parallel to the falls and can go to the foot of the falls. You should try all these methods.

Pets are allowed and we can see lot of dogs enjoying the walk as much as us humans!

In winter there were virtually no one in the park when we visited and the offices were also closed. But it's worth a visit. It looks as if the falls have shrunk.

There's another wonderful site but I was not lucky to see it. The mist of the waterfall freezes and it cause "Le pain de sucre" - Sugar loaf at the foot of the falls. It's a sight to behold for sure.

So if you are interested visit Montmorency Falls and you can cover Quebec City too at the same time.

With Love and Hugs!!!!