Bollywood Dance Party

My older daughter will be turning 10 soon. She wants to celebrate with a 'Bollywood Dance Party' (such a good Indian, her dad is proud). So I scoured the internet for some ideas. Living in the middle of nowhere (with almost no other Indians in the area) makes it hard to find some of the stuff we want, like an Indian dance teacher. But, we persevered and have come up with some fun things. Here is our inspiration board. I'll be back later once we get things more put together with party specifics.

Home Organization - Garage

Well, this week at A Bowl Full of Lemons the organization challenge is the garage. I was kind of hoping that would be much much later, but she put it right at the beginning :p  So, I went ahead and started tackling things. I am still not done. But I have made progress, which is hard enough with 4 small kids.
+ I gathered up a bunch of empty cardboard boxes to take to the recycling center (who knew I'd have a few dozen of those in various sizes).
+ I sorted through plastics totes full of kids clothes. I have 2 boys and 2 girls. And we aren't completely sure we are done yet. So we save all the clothes for hand-me-downs. I now have 3 totes of boy clothes, 6 of girl clothes, 1 of gender neutral newborn clothes (we don't find out the gender ahead of time), and one box of baby linens and blankets. Thank goodness for space bags to help squeeze more into the totes. Eventually these will be stored in our crawl space under the family room.
+ I have a pile of clothes and toys to be donated. My dad helped me out by taking an old wooden bed frame and it's drawers to the donation trailer for me, since it wouldn't fit in my car.
+ I sorted some of my husbands tools, which will soon be relocated into the shed in our backyard, that my father-in-law built for us.
+ And I have gathered some of my husbands many (many many) computer parts into plastic totes so I could move them out of the way.

My husband has promised that when he returns from his deployment he will build me more shelves, for the north wall, so I'll have a nicer place to put things.

Food storage still looking pretty good

I still have to sort more toys, bring in the rest of my craft stuff to my craft area (that needs organizing...later), go through old shoes to see if any are worth handing down, go through my husbands military stuff and put it away properly, gather and sort all kinds of papers magazines and books that found their way out to the garage, and go through the kitchen stuff and knick knacks that are in the garage.Since this next week is pantry organization, and my pantry is only one small cupboard, I will use the week to keep working on my garage.

Update: After 2.5 Weeks I can actually park in there! Check it out!

Home Organization -Kitchen

School is starting again. And my husband will be deploying again. What a great time to get a fresh start on cleaning and organizing. I will now have several days a week with only half the kids at home, and one of them naps. And without the hubby, I can move his stuff anywhere I want it and he can't complain (don't worry it'll only be temporarily displaced until I find better homes for his things).
In that spirit, I have decided to join in 'Home Organization 101' over at A Bowl Full of Lemons blog. It's 14 weeks of cleaning and organizing. This week starts with the kitchen.
I started on labor day, and with everyone home I only got to a couple drawers and a few cupboards. I'll continue to work while the kids are in school later in the week. Also, I do have more dishes and silverware, they were in the dishwasher :)

Plates, cups, bowls...

Silverware drawer

Baking pans and mixing bowls.

Corn holders and other utensils

Large utensils

Medicines (yes, I need to put them back nicely...later). Bottom shelf is Indian spices and mixes.

My fridge is also clean, but I didn't get a picture of it today.

Sewing and Knitting Projects

A quick update post to show off some of my summer projects.
Dress for my 9 year old
  

Baby shower gift. Peasant dress and matching diaper cover, headband, knit cardigan and crochet mary janes.
 



 
 
Some leotards for my oldest, who takes dance classes







A tutu dress for my 3 year old




Argyle vest for my 1 year old boy



Crochet tiara/crown

Wearing an Indian Saree

My first saree was a gift from my husband (who is Indian) when I turned 19 - also the day we got engaged. Since then I've gotten many more. When I first tried to wear a saree I googled it and found a picture tutorial. So, while I've seen people wear them in ways other than the basic most widely used way, I never knew how they did it. So, last week while browsing an online saree store I found these YouTube videos that demonstrated different styles. Here are the links for those videos. {all the videos are from utsavsarees.com and the sound cuts out after the first 15 seconds or so}
Tips on How to Wear Indian Sarees
How to wear Saree
How to wear saree in Rajasthani Style
How to wear saree in Mermaid Style
How to wear saree in Flowing style
How to wear saree in Bengali Style
How to wear saree in Ghaghara Style (or How to wear a Ghagra in a saree style)

-photo from ebestasia.com-