Celebrate The Season With Target #MyKindOfHoliday

I have to say, this time of the year is my favorite part of the whole year! The fall colors, festivals, the magical time of Holiday Season! And in a country as multicultural as USA, the festivities of Holiday Season are beyond exciting. Every year (usually in in October) we celebrate Diwali - the Indian festival of light signifying the win of goodness over evil. For over a decade, since we moved to US, we have also been celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas. As a young family, we are still in the process of making our own traditions and rituals for the Holidays. Mili loves to decorate the tree and write the letter to Santa! I think a child's innocent belief is the most treasured part of any parent's life that makes everything more enriching. The Polar express ride in Hope, Pennsylvania is also becoming our newest Christmas tradition! If you have not been there with your family, you should try this year. The train ride complete with Christmas songs, hot chocolate and Santa's visit to your seat is just magical! You can tell him if you have been good, and what you'd like this year!:)

We are planning to drive to Virginia to be with our friends to celebrate Thanksgiving (or as we call it Friendsgiving). I am looking forward to lots of good food, great conversation and a great deal of laughter!

I believe every festival signifies the importance of faith, love, peace and the value of family. A chance to reconnect, rejoice, cherish and celebrate with those we love. But all the preparation that goes into celebrating the Holidays can sometimes be overwhelming! The decoration, the table setting, the DRESS! Fortunately, there is Target, to take the burden off of you and help you enjoy the season! Now, that is something to be thankful for!!

Let's start with the dining table. After all, that is the epicenter of Thanksgiving/Friendsgiving! Target has exclusive dinnerware, cookware, table setting accents and beautiful glassware that will bring elegance to your table in an instant. I am also loving the festive and traditional appetizer plates from Target Til the Season Serveware Collection.  The touch of luxury and tradition on an affordable price - CHECK!

Holidays are also a perfect time for updating the home decor. The Home section of Target is the treasure trove of gorgeous wall decor pieces, accent mirrors, patterned cushions, rugs and flower arrangements and candles. From Holiday figurines to bring the cheer to your house to beautiful throws and pillows for making it feel cozy, Target has a lot of quick and easy ways to deck the home this season.

Of course, who can forget the outfits! Whether you are a host or a guest, looking your best has never been easier or more affordable!! Target also has some great LBDs that you can dress up or down. Add faux fur wrap or a statement necklace and you are ready to shine!! The Pave collection of necklace and bracelets has my heart aflutter! (This beautiful chain link bracelet is under $20!!) 

And to capture the moments and savor those heartwarming memories of the holidays, these photo frames are just perfect. I am so excited to make a trip to my Target (and shop online) to celebrate the Holiday season!

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza (or festivas with Costanzas!), Target has got you covered! Oh, don't forget to like the Facebook page for Target and TargetStyle to receive news about sale, discounts and exclusive offers. Follow Target on Twitter (@Target and @TargetStyle) to get the latest scoop of best Holiday shopping! Join the conversation, share your own Holiday memories, traditions, shopping and how you are gearing up for the season on instagram and twitter with hashtag #MyKindOfHoliday

I wish you all have a joyous Holiday season - no matter festival you are celebrating!
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Where Does The Time Go?

Really where does it go? I mean I always find myself looking for the 25th hour to finish up one last chore!  Amid Mili's classes, homework, play dates, household chores, my fitness routine and blog - I usually find myself running (not the good kinda running y'all where you tone the legs - but running where I forgot the library card in my other wallet, or miss the 4:12 subway because the metro card was out of money!) The Monday starts with early morning school bus and Friday ends with the weekend looking expectantly at me for the things we have planned pushed back for Saturday! 

And while I am barely finishing up things-to-do, there are Pinterest boards reminding me how other women have a beautiful clean house, perfect menus for entertaining and amazing craft projects they'd be doing with their kids while I refill my metro card! I guess I need to work on my time management (I see another post coming about that!) Or may be I just need to accept the fact that sometimes we need to just let things go a little. So my mantra for this weekend is - a happy house is a messy house, perfect menu is what is sticking on your refrigerator door and the craft activity this Sunday is just snuggling-with-hubs&kiddo-till-the-sun-comes-up -really-high!! As we prepare of another busy weekend at our home, I made up a resolution of letting some things go and just not worry about achieving  perfection! As they say - keep calm and enjoy the weekend:-)

Shirt - Tilly's

Shorts - Topshop

Shoes - Target (Spring uniform shoes!)

Hat - Charlotte Russe (Such a steal!)

Glasses - Asos (clear or shaded)

Watch- Fossil via Piperlime

Bag- Kate Spade

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PS: Don't forget to enter another awesome giveaway by Blue Nile Diamond jewelry, right in time for Mothers Day!!

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Back From Vacation!

A month long vacation is over. I am back in New York, recuperating from the crazy, fun time I had in India with my family. We visited the northern part of India (where I am from) and the southern Part of India (Kerala), where my husband is from.  The memories of the majestic mountains and the roaring sea, of spicy food and signature Indian sweets, of bargain shopping and luxe designer stores visits, of crazy traffic and open roads, of late night cups of 'chai' and endless chatting, of jaw splitting laughter and bitter sweet parting tears - I have it all boxed up in my heart to take comfort from when the time gets tough and I need solace.

 Family. Home. Relationships. The stuff worth living for.

Resort Alert: If you are planning to take a vacation in this part of the country, a great place to stay is the Moutnain Trail Resort

The two week stay in my husband's hometown was heavenly. The fertile land of Kerala has tropical flowers blooming everywhere, the coconut trees dancing in sea breeze welcome you to the lush land often called 'God's own Country'. A must visit place if you are planning a trip to India.

Lucky to live just a few hundred yards from this sleepy beach. Bliss.

Fashion wise, it was a comfortable, casual, easy-breezy kinda vacation. I made use of my colored denim and lightly layered them for the early spring weather. Who knew back home I'll be greeted with dipping mercury with wind chill that makes it feel in the 30s!! Good thing I have the warm memories of my vacation to see me through the chill of New York!

Here is to great vacations and warmer weather! Has spring arrived in your neck of the woods yet? Share your thoughts and connect with me on 

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How To Build A Dollhouse

Like most little girls of 6 years, our daughter loves to play with dolls, but not the big dolls like barbies or Journey dolls - she loves to play with miniature size toys. Like Olivia family, miniature dolls and of course her little ponies! (All of you who have kids would know what I am talking about!!! LOL!)! For Christmas she wanted a doll house. And although my husband and I are not the typical DIYers (but hubby dear is good with tools - what a blessing to have a handy man around;-)), we both thought it'd be fun to build a wooden doll house for Mili.  After searching a lot of craft/home improvement blogs, we found some great suggestions (here, here and here) and decided to make our own doll house! We closely followed the amazing house improvement/DIY blog Young House Love for the dimensions and decorations, but we added an extra shelf to make the doll house taller for Mili's height. (Well, more square footage never hurt no homeowner, right!!)

So on Christmas, 'Santa' delivered the supplies (with a letter explaining Mili  how her dad can make a doll house out of wood pieces!) dad built it and Mom decorated it. The furniture came from ebay! I had so much fun finishing this project and my husband still suspects I wanted the doll house more than Mili!! 

The doll house is almost 3 feet tall with raised ceilings at the top floor! (We had a good realtor!)

For the building process, my husband drew the dimensions, got the wood pieces cut to desired length from home depot, and glued and nailed the pieces together! (For details, please follow directions at Young House Love)
The big plywood board was nailed in the back to finish the structure. Easy peasy!:-)

Then it was mom's turn to paint two coats of white water based latex indoor paint with a roller and a small brush for hard to reach corners. Then a trip to carft store to buy some decorative paper in different designs for the 'wall paper'. I got 14 (12x12 size) papers from AC Moore, cut them to size measuring each 'room' back wall and stuck the paper with modpodge. I also sealed the paper by putting a layer of modpodge on it.

Here is the finished doll house!

Then started the search for perfect furniture! I was lucky to find a great lot of mixed furniture in excellent condition on ebay for $50. I am so in love with house! Sigh!

I wish my dresser was as organized and ornate!

Baby says hi!

We had to have a ballerina somewhere in the house!;-)

The contemporary furniture is actually a set of erasers! (for 77 cents for one set - we got 2 sets for this room) although Olivia's dad looks giant with it! :-) But hey, he got an option to sit down in another 'sitting room' on the velvet upholstered chair (Fancy!)!!

The kitchen is still work in progress, we need to find a good size refrigerator - still making do with 'basement-bar-sized' one that came with the eraser set! LOL! 

The clawfoot tub and golden faucets! C'est magnifique!

Now the big question - WHERE IS THE FOOD? 

So now you know why have I been slow to post since the holidays!! I spend way too much time playing with my daughter and her doll house!

How do you like our attempt to build a doll house?

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