Pumpkin Patch Trip

Yesterday , I sent my parents along with my husband and kid to go and see a pumpkin patch. This was their first time seeing a pumpkin patch. They came back super excited seeing all the pumpkins and the various sizes. Also there were other activities for kids- face painting, picking pumpkin and decorating, coloring and collecting candies at various stalls. They clicked lots of pictures.

Now they are eagerly waiting to experience Halloween :) Nice to see them getting a hang of holiday season here in US.

Pumpkin Patch

My son with his grandparents

Organizing nail polishes

I had collected quite a few nail polishes over the years. It was getting hard to manage and keep them in one place. So to organize my nail polishes, instead of buying a cosmetic holder, I used an old kitchen spice stand that was of no use for me as I got a new one from costco.  Saved a few bucks :) 

Below is how it looks.

 What say ... out of the box thinking :)

Decorating above kitchen cabinets

If you have space above your kitchen cabinet you can easily decorate by using garlands or decorative pieces. Below is what I have done:

• The vase, plant, buddha, candle holder I got from Ross or TJMaxx. They are affordable pieces.
• 2 figurines are actually trophies my husbands had won in his cricket matches. 
• I had some old Christmas tree Jewels that I put in a Wine glass I got from TGIF restaurant. 
• 2 of the pieces in the lefthand corner are pieces I got from India in my last visit. (see in picture below)

Below is one more view.

Simple over the fireplace decoration

We had a blank wall above the fireplace. We had the option to mount our TV on that wall or get wooden cabinets build on it. But we didn't wanted to invest a ton of  money on it , so this is what we did.

For this you will need the following items:

1) wooden frames (can be easily found at Walmart, Target, Michaels)

2) small decoration pieces

3) picture frames

arrange all in the order you want.

Flower arrangements

A flower arrangement is very easy to do and it makes for a beautiful center piece for a table.

All the material I have used for creating the pieces can be found at Michaels store.

You will need the following:

A glass vase

Artificial flowers

Colored Stones

Assemble all and wala.... You get beautiful and inexpensive center pieces.

Another option, get a beautiful vase and arrange flowers in it :) easy.

I got the above vase as a gift from one of our friends. I had some yellow flowers. I arranged the flowers in the vase and it looks beautiful.

Art of couponing

It seems smart use of coupons saves money..... I nor my husband are good at using coupons. I did tried clipping/storing coupons sometime, but I always forget to use it....I am pretty sure most of us do it :))).  Now that I have some time, I read few articles on ways of efficient couponing. The few tips that I am going to use are:

1) Collect coupons from magazines, newspapers, store mailings, In store

2) Clip all the coupons.

3) Store them in a folder with pockets based on expiry date.

4) Every start of the months take out all the coupons that expires that month and keep it in the car or in the purse, so that I can remember and use them when I go shopping. Also, discard all expired coupons.

I still need to get some ideas on how to use online coupons. If you guys have some ideas would love to hear it. Please post your comments.

Few good articles I found online are:

http://frugalliving.about.com/od/bargainshopping/a/Coupon_Guide.htm

I love HomeOrganizing youtube channel. It has some awesome organizing tips.

http://youtu.be/HYgOez0aDsY

http://youtu.be/FFQNN-PmjBY

Efficient Parenting

As I was always working,  I always felt guilty that I am not able to give time to my son... Although I do my best to give him time. So, now as I have time I now tend to pamper him a lot. I feel like doing everything for him... Dress him up, make him sleep.... Yesterday my husband told me to stop pampering him too much all of a sudden now and that I am creating problem for myself. The new baby is due in Jan 2014 and per him when I will get busy with the baby, my son will then feel neglected. Also that he needs to be independent.  Point to ponder......