DIY Mail Organizer

I hate mail. Paper mail.

This is along with hating noodles, pollution, kheer, corruption , mosquitos,  rice pudding, puris, dirty hands, apple pie , dirty lakes/ponds etc etc etc.

Wow, I sat here about 10 to 15 minutes to just think what I hate. Why did I do that? 

Anyways, coming back to paper mail. There's always so much of junk paper mail everyday.Whenever we get the mail from our mailbox, almost 7 out of ten times, the papers get strewn around our house. My adorable son loves to spread all the papers around and I just hate it. Here, there's another thing I hate.

I wonder how much of trees are cut up just for these paper mails. Anyways I was in need of a paper mail organizer and here's how I did it. 

Things needed:

2 Cereal boxes, more or less of the same size.

Scissors

Cello Tape

Glue

Any Nice looking paper

Marker

Measuring Scale / Ruler

Take 2 cereal boxes.

 

Cut one elongated side of both the boxes as shown. Close both the shorter sides (the top and the base) using cello tape on the top side of the box. 

Now apply glue on the bigger side of one box and place another box over it as shown. After this, seal all the closed edges with cello tape.

Now I measured 4 cms on the side of one box, and using a marker draw a line joining it to the top of other box as shown. This is just to get an oblique look. Do this on both the sides and cut along the line.

This is how it looks after cutting it on both the sides.

Now , I had these Shopping paper bags which were just lying in my cupboard. So I gave them some work. I cut them up into pieces.

With the help of glue I stuck these pieces all around the  cereal boxes. I salvages the letters M,A,I,L from the shopping bag and finished the look by sticking it onto the finished piece. 

So here's how you do this easy, peasy, neat mail organizer. Oh, wondered why I used 2 boxes? One is for the mail to be sorted out and the other section is for the mails and coupons that are in use.

Ok, I can't leave this post with those words of hatred. So for some love here's this lovely picture of dolphins flying in air momentarily before plunging into the blue water.

OK then have a lovely time until we meet next.

Refashioned

Hi there, 3 things I need to mention. Okay, Let's make it 6.

1. My parents had been here in US with us for 50 days on vacation, and we had an amazing time.

2. I ended up being lazy coz you know, mom used to do all the work around the house! And now that they are gone back to India..:(((

3. On our 2nd visit to disney land , Ankush enjoyed there a lot. I mean really a lot.

4. Ankush says 'wheels on the bus' song in his own sweet way, although annoying sometimes when it gets repetitive for long time , I derive great deal of gratification seeing him sing with his 'cute as a puppy' actions.

The next  2 things will be mentioned later in this post. Oops! See I told ya (remember #2), I got lazy. I procrastinate, even writing!


                     I had mentioned in my blog earlier that I don't like wasting things and about the 3 R's - reuse, reduce, recycle. Well here are some more examples.

I did this makeover for the wall clock using the packaging foam plates that comes with your vegetables in your grocery store.Cut out the designs , stick it around the clock and Voila, that's the most simple makeover.

The next 2 projects are 'Mom and Me' projects. Coz we both did it. I had borrowed my friends sewing machine . No we did not stitch this skirt, then why the machine???

Well , It was actually a white jeans pant, which we converted into a skirt. The white and black patterned material is store bought.

 It's now refashioned and ready to wear! See don't dispose your old clothes, you can somehow try and make it work in some or the other way.

This following bag I call it as a 'Mom and Dad' bag. Nopes, my dad doesn't know to sew, neither did he help in the project. It's still 'Mom and Dad' bag in the 'Mom and Me' project. Coz we did this bag using my Mom's chudidhar/suit and the inner lining of this bag with my dad's casual pants. Both of their clothes had accidents while ironing. And we thought why not use them instead of throwing away and we sew this bag.

See, before throwing away anything , think twice if you can come up with a way to use it, and surely you will get some amazing ideas. 

Here comes the next 2 things that I didn't mention earlier and has nothing to do with the 'Refashioned' topic.

5. I made these clay Ganesha idols for this Vinayaka/Ganesha chaturthi pooja. My son saw the idols and he said 'Gaaeesha'. 

6. Here is the bounty of Wheatgrass that I grew in my  balcony. The pot is nothing but a milk carton cut into half. See.... another reuse.

And here's the recipe for the very healthy juice that I made out of it.

Put WheatGrass in your blender. Put some water, run it, strain the juice. Put the grass back into the blender and keep repeating the process until almost whitish green fibre remains. Now stir in some honey and lemon juice to the juice and enjoy . One pot of grass was enough for 4 .

That's it for now. Have a happy week ahead.

Restaurant Review of Olive Garden(for vegetarians)

Olive Garden is an Italian restaurant having many branches in the US. My love story with Italian food started with this restaurant. It was like love at first bite! And the love story has ever since continued.....

This Italian haven has quite a good  number of vegetarian dishes. The decor is so simple and pleasing. The service has been good most of the time we have visited excepting a couple of times.  The complimentary bread sticks are so always fresh out out of the oven served warm many a times.
I will be mentioning only the vegetarian dishes in this review.

Starters include bruschetta, caprese flatbread, artichoke spinach dip, lasagna fritta, smoked mozarella fonduta. We have tasted the first four and without a doubt all taste good excepting the lasagna fritta being too cheesy and heavy for my tastebuds.

The best part of this restaurant is their signature salad with their own dressing. I could just visit this place and order just a salad and still could be 100% satisfied. They also have a minestrone soup which I personally did not like much. But still it isn't bad to try once a while!

You can find a good variety of main courses among pastas. My personal favorite being ravioli de portbella. Never have got bored of it until now.

The below is a picture of Eggplant Parmagiani. It is a wonderful dish, which could also be substituted with penne pasta upon request.

They also have a good variety of wines and desserts. My favorite dessert is tiramisu, and the best part is that you can also get small portion of any dessert called dolcini. You wont even feel the guilt of eating all that decadent yumminess! 

You can also order an italian pizza which we have tasted and is good. Something different than the ones we usually order from dominoz or pizza hut.

This picture is a seafood dish which my friend had ordered the other day! It just goes without saying that non-vegetarians have lot of good options to choose from.

So my overall experience is always good visiting this place, the price is not bad for the amount of portion size and of course the good taste. Even the complimentary mint chocolate at the end tastes good!
Would I visit this place again?
I have already visited this place many a times and I would surely do so in future.

So if you are a vegetarian and you have an Olive Garden nearby, I would boldly suggest you to visit it and you wouldn't be disappointed.

Hope this review helped all fellow vegetarians.

Have fun you all!