The Story Of Us

Another slow reading year.. with travelling, moving and the baby I was usually too tired at the end of the day to read more than a few pages. Rarely do I go to sleep without reading even a few pages of flip through a magazine..  I used to have this thing about never leaving a book unfinished. I thought it rude to the author to not finish. There was always a slight chance that things would turn around and with a little clever twist I would end up liking it rather than not. I can no longer afford to do that. I am mom to a toddler, I am exhausted, I barely get the time to read. I make the time because I love to read. If in the first few chapters I am not even mildly engaged then I just stop reading and move on. I started off the year with The Solitary Tales.. a series of four books. I won the first three in a giveaway and am now waiting for the fourth. 1. Solitary - Travis Thrasher - On an average day I would have never picked up these books. They are about a teenage boy new in

This was really one hell of a year.. eventful is an understatement. D and I spent two months in Karachi  joined my M in the last two weeks. We spent three amazing days in Istanbul 1 2 3 And Labor Day weekend was spent with family in Houston My little brother got married.. it was one long wedding but so much fun 1 2 3 4 5 We got pregnant ! Moved! I made my 117th sale! Finished editing photographs taken in Egypt and Iran Dressed up for our first Halloween ! We hired a  Contractor and started to remodel.. check out all we've done so far here The birth of little H just missed the list.. This has.. had been quite a year.. can't wait to see what the next year.. this year has in store for us! How was your 2013? Any plans already in motion for 2014? Trips waiting to be taken? Milestones on the brink of being accomplished? Here's to them all being achieved! Here's to your health and happiness! Here's to our fa

On 2nd January we welcomed our second son. He was a tiny little thing.. but that didn't mean he made coming into this world any easier. He started making the move in the last few hours of 2013 and took the long scenic route out. Lets just say 'ouch!'  D started with just plain ignoring him.. and has now slowly progressed to acknowledging him at times.. I'm not complaining. I'll take ignoring over jealousy any day.  We named the little one who will from now on be referred to as 'H' Hasan. Pronounced like Hudson minus the 'd'. It was the name of the first grandson of our Prophet Mohammed (PBUH). It means 'to be beautiful and to be good'  Get my post directly in you inbox with  Bloglovin I am now also offering ad space.  See  Sponsors  for more information .  Newsletter Sign Up - Let's Stay Connected, Shall We?

Hoping you all had a wonderful Holiday! 2 weeks to go till baby arrives.. 2 weeks to go! though if this one is anything like his/her big brother it could be here right now!?  so lets continue to celebrating  another week closer with another giveaway.. This week I am teaming up with my two good friends and creative minds behind zCush Baby Nap Mats , these two women took the traditional nap mat used by mother's for decades in the subcontinental countries and made them better. They are the perfect support a new child needs and can be used at times of napping, playing, feeding and changing and best of all when family, friends or big brothers and sisters want to hold your delicate bundle of joy you no longer have to worry. zCush is giving away an adorable baby nap mat to one lucky winner.. Cotton Candy Pink or Plushy Paws Blue, you choose. To Enter: - Visit  zCush 's adorable shop and tell me in the comments which your favorite nap mat is and leave your em

We are nearing the end of our kitchen/family room renovations.. phew finally. And the place is really starting to come together wonderfully. You can see more before and after's here This weeks project was the fireplace, we had planned on white washing our red bricks to make the space brighter. I read about all the techniques and tried a few of them out before beginning. We diluted the paint using 50% white paint and 50% water. I started to apply the mixture with a paint brush while M wiped.. we decided that wasn't working.. we wanted the fireplace to be much whiter.. and the diluted paint was too watery. It was dripping everywhere and I had to go over the same place multiple times to get the brick to to look bright and white rather than murky and dirty. So I went with a dilution of 75% paint and 25% water. The we project also turned into an I project, where it was I painting and no wiping.. M considered the job not for him.. required to much patience and was too tedious for h

3 weeks to go till baby arrives.. 3 weeks to go!  D arrived in seven days from today!  but lets continue to celebrating another week closer with another giveaway.. This week I am teaming up with Ershware , as  an artist and designer with a love for fashion and modern design Ashley  struggled trying to find unique, modern and affordable clothes for her son. So she drew on her design sensibility, past-life as a pattern maker, and her ridiculously heavy industrial sewing machine to take matters into her own hands. And soon was born Ershware ,  hip, modern and eco friendly hats for babies and toddlers. Ershware  is giving away a Star Aviator hat, in your choice of colors to help keep your newborns or toddlers little ears warm. There are four sizes to choose from.  To Enter: - Visit  Ershware 's cool shop and tell me in the comments what your favorite creation is and leave your email address so I can contact you when you win :) - Visit Ershware's  Etsy  page and cl

We have painted rooms before, three rooms, a bathroom and stripes in the hallway of our apartment to be exact. So I would say we are no strangers to painting. We are aware of the do's and don'ts.. the important Repair. Prepare. Paint. What we were strangers to is the repairing. All the previous walls we had painted were pretty much new. They came with the original contractors paint.. so repairing was not needed. Nor did we need separate primer.. the paint plus primer combo pretty much worked. Step one, I took pictures of all the repair jobs on the walls.. thank god the family room area had been already taken care of by the contractor and we only had to deal with the kitchen part of the walls. We took the pictures to show to the Home Depot guy so that we were certain the products we were purchasing we correct.      The job required sanding the bumpy, uneven areas till they were smooth, filling in the holes with joint compound or spackle, waiting for it to dry and then re-