A weekend in the mountains

Hello folks!

How was your weekend....? The weekend is long gone....it's Wednesday today, halfway through the week!?....you may say, right? Well, you are right. But, for all of us in the US, it was a long weekend, Monday being a holiday. I normally need a day to get over the weekend if it was anything special.....and....it was. So here I am.... blogging about my weekend.

We, along with some friends, took a road trip to Blue Ridge in northern Georgia over the weekend. We rented a log cabin in the mountains. The place was nestled in the wilderness, surrounded by nature with a creek flowing in the backyard....! 


Our trip was filled with a number of interesting things......a trip to the apple picking farm, enjoying some delicious fresh apples, hike to a couple of waterfalls, roasting marshmallows in the crackling fire that we lit in the fire pit, sitting in the swing with feet in the creek water, and finally, collecting rocks to bring back home as memories of the trip.


Here are a few glimpses....

Trees loaded with apples at Mercier Orchards

Surrounded by trees on our way to the Fall branch falls

The waterfalls

the fire pit

roasting marshmallows...

The creek behind our cabin

Do you see the swing on the right?

Linking to Weekly story at Patty's

All that I did this weekend

Hello Monday!

Are you all ready to tackle the week ahead? Well, I am....only beacuse I had a fabulous weekend...full of activity and then some time to rejuvenate and refresh.

Saturday was a quite a wet day.....it rained pretty much the entire day. I had no option but to stay at home almost all day long......giving me chance to relax and do some things around the house.

I did a whole lot of cleaning and a bit of decorating, moving things around the house (one of my favorite pastime......). A few clicks....

                                                         I pampered myself and got a pedicure.....

 

                                                        We celebrated Rakshabandhan....

And then I did some cooking.... yes I did, remember all that inspiration I talked about in my previous post.

I also indulged in another favorite pastime of mine......browsing through old photos. I love looking at pictures from previous vacations, time spent with family, special occasions and just reminiscing....good times! Do you like doing that???

Well, that wraps up my entire weekend. How was yours...? Did you do anything special? Do share.

Have a good week!

Linking to Patty's weekend wrap up, Good Life Wednesday

A lovely evening in the backyard

I really wanted to be here this morning and blog about my weekend, but some things kept me away from the blog. There is a lot happening behind the scene at ATB (all things beautiful) and also on the personal front...things that might make my life take a turn. I'm not sure if its for the better ...but I'm hoping for the best. I am a person who looks forward to change but when that change is about to happen, I resist it and get all nervous....Do you know what I'm talking about?


This weekend we had our first barbecue of this summer and it was the first one in our own backyard:). I was so thrilled to finally enjoy this part of my house. Its starting to get really hot during the day but the evenings are still very pleasant with a light breeze. While my mind wandered with various thoughts, I just wanted to forget everything and enjoy the evening.

Linking to Patty's Weekend wrap up.

Hello Monday...

and hello May...I think I'm very late to start my week. But can I help it.... I just got back from a short picnic at the park with a friend and our kids...yes on a Monday-:). It almost seemed like an extension of the weekend....a really nice getaway though. The kids were happy to be out of the house and outdoors, and me and my friend had some time to just chat...the weather was warm- its Florida and summer is almost around the corner- but the shade of the trees and the light breeze kept us cool.

I feel relaxed and ready to take on the weekly chores, but before that, I thought I'll spend some time on my favorite blogs (Are you wondering what a time waster I am....with not really much to do?) I was thinking on similar lines...and I have tons to do, but then I came across this......

via

It is Perfect. I think I'm going to frame this one and put it right above my desk.

I'm off to finish some errands but will be back soon. See you then!

Linking this post to the weekend wrap up at colours dekor.

Bubble tea on the beach

Being a part of blogland and reading other blogs has a lot of rewards, like getting creative inspiration, new ideas for decor and design, finding new friends, like minded people; and for me urging me to try new recipes....this time around it was something more. 

Saturday morning I read this post on saffron and silk about bubble tea, and was reminded of my own experience of having this unusual beverage. It was more than 6 years back at Berkeley while visiting a few friends when I tried it for the very first time. I think I must have quite liked it, coz reading about it so many years later, I could almost remember its taste. For whatever reason, I never had it again ever since, maybe I never came across a place selling it. After reading Kamini's post, I had a strong urge to try it again. I googled bubble tea in Tampa and came across this place, only it was 40 miles away...and so I put my urge to rest. 

Later in the day, friends and us made a spontaneous plan to take the kids to the beach. Lucky for me, the Vietnamese cafe was almost on our way. Hubby and I both picked up our bubble teas - and headed for the beach. We loved it! Thank you Kamini...for bringing back some memories!

It was wonderful evening, with a light cool breeze, a beautiful sunset and of course our bubble tea....

Linking in to weekend wrap up at colours dekor. 

A picnic and a makeover

Forgive me for I have been away from the blog for some time...You see, I was busy planning a picnic. Most part of last week went into the planning. The picnic was this Saturday at the Crews Lake Wilderness Park. The timing was perfect- just before the weather gets too hot here. There was a lot to plan- the menu, the games, the drinks, things to take....For our group of friends, food is definitely a priority...and so the menu planning began...there were snack idlis, corn and bean salad, papdi chaat, aloo bonda, chips n salsa. The snack idlis were made by moi and they came out great. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the food...as usual it was all gone even before I realized it.  The highlight for the kids for the train ride at the park....they enjoyed it thoroughly, and fun for all. The train was really a cute one, with room for a lot of people to ride.

Thats my husband and son posing with the train driver:).

The little ones were having a ball playing in the fields. 

Come Sunday, I had a project planned. An old bookcase was to get a makeover. This one had been lying in my garage and used as extra storage. Nothing really wrong with it, its from our apartment days, only it does't go well with the dark wood tones of our furniture. 

I spray painted it white...

And here is the new look.

I brought it in my son's room, and arranged all his books in it.

Nice, isn't it? I like it. The project was very simple. What I'm really happy about is that I reused something and gave it a new life.

Linking in to the weekend wrap up at colours dekor. 

Garage sale find

The weekend was a lot of fun starting with India winning the world cup and then the three birthday parties. But for me, the best part was the garage sale in our community. Every six months we have a yard sale for the entire community, and I most eagerly look forward to it, hoping to find some treasures.

This time around, I found this beautiful lantern. Here's sharing with you some pictures of my new found treasure.

Aren't garage sales so much fun...? One man's trash is another man's treasure.
Do you have any such treasures? How about sharing them with everyone here...? If you'd like that, email me here.

Linking to the weekend wrap up at colours dekor. 

Time well spent

Few weekends are as productive productive and enjoyable as the one that just went by. Mine are mostly spent relaxing, meeting up with friends, eating out, shopping and some mundane household chores. This time I was determined. I had to get some stuff done for my out of control to do list to get shorter.

Saturday was spent doing a lot of work in the patio and the garden. I cleaned up the patio, repotted a lot of my green plants

and brought some indoors.

With the nice warm weather, the soothing greens and my sweet smelling jasmine, I'm sure to spend a lot more time in my patio.

In the garden, lot of new spring plants went into the ground. I was busy working on my spring wishlist:).

I now have some lilies , yellow daisies, snapdragons, azaleas and jasmine in my garden. I will very patiently wait for the gladioli and calla lily bulbs to bloom. [Dear bulbs, please take your time but don't take too long as I am not a very patient person]

Saturday evening, we had a picnic at the community park. The kids and adults both had a very good time- kids were happy as they were outdoors with the swings and the slides, and the adults enjoyed as they chit chatted, got to know the neighbors and had some great food.

Sunday was the day to assemble my new bookshelves. I have been pining to get a bookshelf for my living room since a long time. Finally, it was assembled and ready to be dressed. Ahhh....the exciting part! Dressing it up!

All done for now. 

No, no, no... that's not all that we did over the weekend...there's more. Sunday evening, we had a fabulous time at a barbecue at a friend's place. The weather was just perfect and the food was scrumptious- a great way to end the weekend. 

This is what I call Time well spent.

I'm linking to Patty's Weekend Wrap Up at Colours Dekor
Also linking to the Green Thumb Decor party at Colors Dekor.

A prolonged weekend

Even since I saw the DIY tutorials posted by Bhavna of An indian summer, I wanted to try it out.

We are having some friends over for the Christmas holidays and I wanted to add something new to deck the house. I got all the supplies ready before the weekend and everything was planned for the weekend. But as they say, things never go as planned. Saturday was all about finishing my last minute gift shopping and the lines at the stores were longer than ever. Never mind, I rushed back home only to find that my son decided not to take his afternoon nap, aahhhh..... The evening was spent at a friend's holiday party which was indeed a lot of fun but the thought of my DIY project stayed with me.

I don't have much of an excuse for not doing what was planned on Sunday. Sundays are usually very relaxed with only the necessary stuff getting done. There was the usual cooking, groceries etc, and then tea and chit chat with friends in the evening.

Finally, the much awaited project was pushed out to Monday. So here's what I did...

                                                                  the flowers all done...

 The stems from the tree that we trimmed a little while ago...

Time to put it all together...

How do you think it turned out? I'm linking to the weekend wrap up party at Patty's blog Colours decor.