Niwas - where our heart resides

Free Printable - Holi Party Invite

2012-02-25T23:04:00.001-05:00

If you are planning a Holi Party ..this post is perfect for you .. In fact you do not wanna miss the whole Holi series coming up. Use this free printable to invite your friends and family this Holi .. this invite is colorful, simple yet brings all the elements of Holi together ...Easy to download and print and either mail it to them or scan it and email it out...This is perfect time to send invite as it's not to early and not to late ...Hope you all enjoy planning for Holi as much as we do at Niwas...

Click the link below and either download or print the invite ...
Holi Hai (1)

Friday Shopping - Holi Special

2012-02-23T23:28:00.000-05:00

Today's shopping find goes well with the most colorful time of the year is here .....Getting the house ready for Holi also means getting festive spirit all around the house ...this is the time to take out all the colorful home decor things sitting in your closet .....Holi (Indian Spring) brings another reason to decorate the house Looking at the ideas below might help ring a bell and you might say "I have something similar...why don't I take it out and use it this Holi"....Idea is to get inspired ....Let's get started then ..

Bring color inside your house with these pillows from Pier1

Pic Source : Pier1

Pic Source: companyc

Pic Source: Shutterstock

If you can't have a water ballon fight on Holi ..you sure can have a pillow fight on Holi now.

We will continue Holi Shopping series in coming up Friday's.

The night of Shiva

2012-02-20T18:37:00.000-05:00

Ganesha, Nandi(bull) and Shivling is a treasured gift from my mom from her South India Trip. They are hand made by a cute girl ..she was learning the art from her family and selling her piece of art. I love when a part of your trip becomes the most beautiful memory ......

Friday Shopping

2012-02-17T07:56:00.002-05:00

Shopping is always a way to relax, get inspired and let your ideas go crazy ...Either you are buying a gift or just looking for one ..its always fun to see what are our options..especially in today's world of technology its even more fun to see what's available around the world that can be yours by a simple order. Most of the blogs I follow have started their small online shops and their stuff is to die for...Wondering why am I talking so much about shopping ? Well we are gonna go shopping every Friday now ....yup we will go shopping ..may be most of the time window shopping but the idea is to enjoy the creativity around us ....So get ready for Friday shopping with Niwas ...

Perfect gift for a traveller in your house.....Love these Asia Magnets, Vintage 1914 Atlas, set of 4
Shop : historicallytoo @ Etsy
Click here to check it out

Pic Source: Etsy

Can't wait to go shopping next Friday now and find treasures :)

Celebration Invitation

2012-02-15T19:58:00.000-05:00

In midst of a crazy work routine a surprise invitation card brought a smile to my face ... The invitation is from ISKON for Shivratri and Holi celebration ...I love the card design and the idea of reminding people in this busy world....As soon as I saw the card it brought nostalgic memories of India ..

A magent holds the invitation on the fridge and is a great inspiration for celebrations coming up...

Hope you all are getting excited and have lots of plans for these festivities....

Heart Chips

2012-02-14T19:27:00.003-05:00

Have you made Guacamole dip for appetizer ? I am sure answer is a big Yes however have you ever made it with Heart Chips ??? ... We Heart Guacamole Dip, so I decided to make this for Vday evening ...Here is the quick recipe for the chips and dip...If you are a last minute kinda person no issue ...its will take less than 10 mins ( given have the ingredients at home)

Heart Chips

Spring Roll Pastry Sheet ( available at any Asian store)

Recipe

Fold the sheet in half and cut the heart shape

Pre-heat oven at 375 F and then pop the heart shaped pastry puff for 8 minutes

Warm Heart chips are ready for your Dip

Guacamole Dip

Ripe avocado

Garlic

Ginger

Salt

Paprika

Lemon

Cilantro

Recipe

Scoop out avocado in a bowl

Add rest of the ingredients mix well and its ready

Crisp and warm chips made at home with loves of Love...................Enjoy

Tea Love @ Niwas

2012-02-12T21:57:00.000-05:00

There are two days in a year I really look forward too .. Valentine Day and My Birthday...of course they are special days ..however my reason of getting excited is something really different ....These are two days that my husband promises to make me a cup of Tea :) ...see the complexity is my husband doesn't drink tea ( I know all Tea Lovers are thinking WHAT!!!)....so he doesn't care of tea in morning or evening ....our first valentine together as a couple I asked him for one gift and that was that he will make me Tea ....I love a cup of tea on a Sunday morning ..however I only get pampered like that when my parents or in-laws are there .. with hubby its Vday and Bday
..
This year when I was looking for Vday card for him I came across this PERFECT card that I ordered from Cardstore.com and it said "I love you more than......" and I filled the blanks with "my morning tea" .....I kept smiling when I was ordering and love the way this story of our got just perfect with this card. We do early Vday gifts and cards (both of us do not have the patience to hide the gift/card) ..so it right now sits next to the alarm clock reminding him every morning how special is he to me....Thanks Card Store for such a cute car.

May be after Vday I can use this card for Tea reminders hmmmm..now that's an idea :)

Colors of Love by Mother Nature

2012-02-09T22:55:00.002-05:00

Peach tree next door is helping me decorate Niwas with colors of Love. Flowers with a beautiful pink on a tree with no leaves is breathtaking ... I had never seen this amazing work on nature .. I remember walking in the neighborhood when I first saw it and was totally amazed and also wished if our house will have the same tree.....this tree sits in between our house and the neighbor house ......Flower start around mid Jan and are in full bloom in Feb ... Looks like Mother Nature is wishing us "Happy Valentines Day"

Love @ Niwas

2012-02-07T20:52:00.002-05:00

A pinch of joy
A dash of tenderness
A spoonful of affection
A heap of LOVE ........

and the flower smiled...

2012-02-04T20:44:00.001-05:00

Morning kissed the flower and he yawned "Good Morning"....

he was still half a sleep, still trying to open his petals

the turtle in the corner noticied the yawning flower

in between the green leaves and dry twigs

all turtle could see was a morning kissed flower

turtle kept watching the flower and then finally said "You are Beautiful"

and the flower smiled ............

Capturing Beautiful things@ Niwas is an amazing feeling. Hope you all have an amazing feeling in all you do.

Simpli Simplify

2012-02-02T13:56:00.002-05:00

A rusted garden sign says the most important word .....

Celebrating three year journey of Niwas ..

2012-02-01T09:25:00.001-05:00

Ganesh Ji, a photo by meenakshi.vij on Flickr.

As we completes three years I decided to create a facebook page for Niwas and wlecome my friends and family to be part of Niwas. As per Indian beleives everything starts with Lord Ganesha....so I welcome you all @Niwas with this corner. I hope you like what you see, get inspired and stay with us in this journey.

Kitchen loves green

2012-01-16T20:24:00.000-05:00

These succulent are happy sitting in a wicker tray in kitchen ... My Kitchen loves there company and we love watching them grow .. We grabbed these from botanical garden sale and planted them in these beautiful sea green ceramic pots ..

Instant India

2012-01-15T19:52:00.001-05:00

During my college days I remember mom making Nescafe Instant Coffee for the kids .... at 12 in the night so that we all could study and keep our eyes open... ( mom makes the best coffee...no one can beat that) ..That's about pretty much what I had seen as far as instant food/drink in India .. then we also started seeing MTR ready to eat food and Pillsbury's Pressure Cooker Cake ....At least in our house we didn't use a lot of instant/ready to eat kind of products .. not that we are against or anything it's just that we didn't ....When my mom came this year she brought something that was instant and she wanted me to try ... I wanted to but didn't get a chance.. then on a recent get together with friends mom reminded me of the Instant pack of Tamrind Chutney that she brought for me .." I can make fresh chutney for you if you want or do you want to try the packets I got for you? " ... she asked me in the kitchen .. "Mom is it good ? Should we try at home first" I said ... "Oh its very good" she promised... I took her word and tried it ...Mom are always right ...it was the best instant chutney I had ever tried ...All I had to do was cook the powder in one cup waster for 10 mins and Ta-Da your instant tamrind chutney is ready ... What will we do without our mom's ... always guiding us with best things... If you happen to be in India or have family coming over this is a must if you are a tamrind chutney fan ... I think it's a cute gift for Diwali basket as well ...Ideas Ideas :)

Music in the house

2012-01-14T19:17:00.003-05:00

Last week we had prayers (Bhajan) at our house .. their is something spiritual with the whole expeirence .. house filled with incense smell and semolina sweet (Sooji Halwa)...everyone singing with each other and welcoming the New Year with almighty's grace ..Kids also had a great time and were clapping to the rhythm of songs ..

After bhajan we skyped with my brother and showed my nephew the musical instruments and his face lit up. He sang his nursery rhymes for us while mom played dholki (picture below).. My 5 year old niece also sang Jingle Bell and Old McDonald with dholki and enjoyed us singing hindi songs on Lohri. She was cold and wasn't feeling good but stayed with us outside near born fire and sang with us .. I started thinking next day that it is a great way to teach kids songs and rhymes that we grew up .. they will also build confidence singing in front of crowd and will make memories .. all this by just using musical instrument in the house ? ... Isn't this the easiest thing we can do ...I love the idea and will use it for sure in our house .... Hope you can bring some music to your house too ...

Happy Harvest - Happy Lohri

2012-01-12T21:45:00.002-05:00

One of the thing that I remember about Lohri was whole family sitting around fire and trying to barbeque Shakargandi (Sweet Potatoes) ...I do not think we were ever successful but it was fun to try it every year with different ideas. The mixture of Mungfali ( Roasted Peanuts) and Revari ( Seasme and Jaggery sweet) plate and eating peanuts all night long and cleaning the stack of shell next day is something still fresh on my mind...Being festive time the Band Wala's would show up uninvited on your door and would play the latest song till you gave some tip ..( I love India :) ...We continue to do the same here @ Niwas where our families get together and eat dinner together and dance and eat peanuts together ...Last year my brother's family brought stuff to make Smores ....With peanuts all around Squirrels next day have a party in out backyard and they seems to can't wait for this festivals to be back ..just like us. I love the simplicity of this festival yet it brings and builds so much memories with family and friends ... Wishing Happy Lohri to everyone ...

A New Year

2012-01-01T22:43:00.002-05:00

It has been amazing feeling to seeing Niwas grow over past few year’s …
From Diwali to Christmas.. From a new table to a runner..
Sad to good times …Niwas has been with me as a place just like my home.. where I an unwind ..
Here is looking back at 2011 before we welcome 2012

We did better this year with our garden...last year were tomatoes… …this year we had green chilies, Indian squash and lots more tomatoes …I know it’s not that much but we feel proud of what we did .. We travelled to one of the places I always wanted to go …Colorado ...the place is more gorgeous then we see or hear from people … I would definitely go back to enjoy it more. The west trip also included Mount Rushmore, Yellow Stone, Badlands…..driving over the mountains to snow filled peaks was an experience I will never forget ….nature and its beauty in Yellow stone is captured in the memory room in my brain forever ….Salute to the idea and craftsmanship of Mount Rushmore …

We celebrated my Parent’s 40th wedding Anniversary …my niece first birthday and my nephew graduating from high school… We are blessed to enjoy these celebrations as a family….
Work has been very busy for me and my husband so we did take this year slow …I tried new recipes to for Christmas and Diwali …Not much craft this year just some bilingual ornaments for the girls…I think it’s ok to have a slow but good year . I hope you all had a year with lots of memories and good times, smiles and laughter. Here’s wishing a Happy New Year from our Niwas to yours …

Holiday Magic

2011-12-28T19:16:00.003-05:00

There is definitely something magical about holidays ...is it the lights in your yard or the snuggle feeling ...is it the coffee in cold hands or the glittery ornament ...All I know is I love whatever it is and can't wait for it to come again next year ... for this year and for years to come ....I have memories of a wonderful holidays .....