A trip to Cherish! - Kenya - Masai Mara!

The first time my husband told me that he is planning to visit Africa for this vacation, my first reaction was WHY? Later it turned to where exactly? What will we see there?

All my questions were answered when he told me about Masai Mara, and just after seeing the pictures online I was convinced.

We had planned the entire trip by ourselves with the help of a few friends who’ve lived there or have visited there.

We took a flight to Nairobi, and planned to stay there for a day since we were travelling with a toddler. We needed that energy conserved for the rest of the trip.

Nairobi:

When I googled about Nairobi I was not very sure about the place and was not very keen on staying there. But we still did. Due to the flight delay from Addis Ababa, we could only reach to the hotel by late night at 2:00 am instead of 11 o’clock in the morning. Most of the travelers with us had planned it the same way. We made few friends at the airport as we stayed for almost 14 hours together waiting for our flight (bad experience with Ethiopian Airways).

Where we stayed:

We stayed at Tune, which is located inside the Nairobi city. I was not very impressed with the hotel, it had no intercom in the room, so if you need something you will have to go to the reception, apart from that everything was ok.

Masai Mara:

We took a six hours road trip from Nairobi to Masai Mara. The roads for like an hour are decent, after which it’s a very bumpy ride. Would not recommend it if you are travelling with a toddler or if you get motion sickness. I was fine but my husband and my daughter were not very comfortable throughout the ride.

We left around 9 from Nairobi and reached our destination- Kilima Camp only by 2:30. Kilima Camp is beautiful and is located on top of a hill.

The staff is amazing, food is awesome basically both of us loved the camp and the hospitality of the staff.

Next day we went for the game drive in search of the big five. Try and leave as early as possible in the morning.

We did the game drive for 2 days. Third day we were back to Nairobi in the same hotel- Tune.

Stayed there for a day, on the way back we did some road side shopping- which was amazing and got some good deals after bargaining.

Next day morning we went to see mount Kenya, the weather was awesome and the mountain was hidden behind the clouds. After breakfast we went for another game drive.

Finally we could spot the cheetah and white rhinos.

In Mount Kenya, we stayed at The Sweet Waters. We recommend the camp.

So overall it was an amazing experience, we chose the right time to go there, we saw the big five, migration but missed the hunt… which was okay because the excitement to see everything was too much.


What an amazing experience it was to see a wild cheetah right in front of our eyes, doing nothing but relaxing. I have no words to explain the excitement of my husband.

Below are few more pics from our album. Hope you have enjoyed the post.

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The Big News - Good News!

After my wedding story, I promised you that I will write about the best 9 months of my life. So here am I with the story.

Me and Kunal both thought that we will plan our family after knowing each other a little better since ours was an arranged marriage. We started trying after we completed two years together. And luckily, I conceived in four months of trying.

When I got married, I just had one thing in my mind that I want to get the news of my pregnancy in my husband’s parental house which was vacant from the time we got married. We stayed there when we visit Jaipur. Well, God has been really kind to me throughout my life. I was late just by 4 days and we were in Jaipur for a family function, early morning I took the test and it was positive, couldn’t breathe at that time, out of excitement and just to be sure I took another one. Guess what… it was positive too. I walked to Kunal and told him that we’re having a baby. Half asleep he heard me, and second moment his eyes were wide open and he asked, “are you sure? is this for real”

Hugs and kisses came my way. We thought of confirming it with a doctor. Visited a doctor and were informed all the do’s and don’ts for the coming months. I was 4 weeks pregnant as per the reports, which is quite early to know for any girl, usually its 6 weeks.

Overjoyed, we went back home with a big box of sweets for the family. The news spread like fire in the family, I started getting calls from everyone and everyone wished us health.

Till this time, I did not tell my parents about it. We were visiting them in the evening, so thought we will disclose the news then face to face. But my dear husband could not hold his horses and told my mom that you are going to become “nani” soon. I could hear my mom’s excitement by just sitting next to Kunal while he was on the call…

That was the happiest day of our lives. 10^th November’2013.

It still is giving me goosebumps sharing my story with all you guys. And I’m sitting with tears of happiness in my eyes. I should stop now.

Thanks for reading my story, will update the delivery story soon. Till then keep rocking. May God bless you all. And let’s thank God for everything he has given to us.

Lots of love,

Kirti

Body Boom Coffee Scrub Review

Hello Ladies!!

Around nine to ten months back I had subscribed for Glambox. I’ve received a lot of boxes from them and am in love with all of them. I’ve received some amazing products including lipsticks, perfumes, creams, shampoos, mascara, scrubs, nail paints and what not. Personally, I’m very impressed with the quality and the wide range of products that they have.

I got this Body Boom Coffee Scrub a few months back and after keeping it for almost three months yesterday I decided to try it… Finally…!

It comes in simple packaging, looks like any other scrub. But wait till you open the packet.

              OMG, it smells heavenly. So, I started off by getting into the shower and then I applied the powdery scrub all over my legs. I got high on the coffee aroma that this scrub has. It’s easy to work with the scrub it genteelly exfoliates the skin and does not feel harsh on the skin at all.

After I finished scrubbing my whole body (I got 30 grams packet which was sufficient for scrubbing my whole body), I was left with super smooth skin and by that I mean smooth as never before skin and so well moisturized (my skin is very dry and usually gets very rough if not moisturized twice every day) . Not to forget the amazing aroma that was left behind on my skin.

I can say that indeed it is one of the best scrubs I have ever used, the others that I like are from Bath and Body Works (just saying).

I love everything about the scrub, from the formulation to fragrance, the after feeling and most of all my skin after using it.

I would certainly be buying the Body Boom Coffee Scrub again and recommend it to you for sure.

I can’t stop telling you guys about how much am I in love with this one. This product is PURE LOVE. And a very special thanks to Glambox.me for introducing me to this product.

Product Details:

Body Boom Coffee Scrub-Original

Weight: 30 g (Sample Pack) and 200 g (normal packaging) for AED 120

Buy from: https://en-ae.namshi.com/catalog/?q=body+boom

Glambox Details:

To Subscribe:

For Her: https://www.glambox.me/en/subscribe.html/

For Him: https://www.glambox.me/en/for-him.html

                

Our Wedding Story!

Marriage is a gift. It should be opened and enjoyed” – Geeg Evans.

My parents thought.. and I chose him. Just like many others ours was also an arranged marriage in India. We had fallen in love with each other in our initial days. And decided to get married to each other happily.

We might not have a love story but we do have a story to tell. After our parents initiated the conversation, we also spoke to each other over the phone. The first phone call lasted around 45 minutes. Then a series of long chats happened. We used to chat for hours without any obligation of saying yes to each other to marry.

We finally met to be honest we were positive about each other already. Meeting with our family was just a formality for both of us. We liked each other and finally said yes after like a month of knowing each other. I know it’s a short time for most of you, but when you know it you know it…

We decided to get married.

We had a courtship period of around 6 months which we enjoyed thoroughly. His surprize visits made that period so much fun. I was so happy to finally be called Mrs. Kunal Mathur.  Loved the feeling.

We were married after completing all the customs in our culture including Engagement, Haldi & Mehndi, Tel Bhaat and finally the feras.

This one is my mom's wedding dress.

All I can say our journey for these 6 years, well almost 7 now had lots of ups and downs and we are so addicted to each other and madly in love.

After completing 3 years of our wedding we were blessed to have a baby girl and we named her Kavya… so we are 3 K’s in the family – Kunal , Kirti & Kavya.

We moved to UAE after 3 years and here is when Kavya happened to us. God bless her.

Our journey till now has been super fun and full of amazing things. And both of us are looking forward to more of such awesome years together.

Hope, you enjoyed the little life story, our engagement and wedding pictures I shared with you guys.

I will be sharing Kavya’s birth story in the next post, till then keep calm and wait for the next story.

Love you guys!

What I did When I Lost My JOB ?

Things I did after I lost my job:

Finding a job and continuing with it was somehow very difficult for me, either we moved to a different city or abroad. So, my career path has been very difficult. At least for me it was a tough one.

When we shifted to Dubai, after a year or so I started looking for a job, fortunately I got one through reference. Yet it took almost 8-9 months for me to finally start going to office.

But only after three months the whole department got shut down. Apart from my team a lot of floor staff also lost their jobs. This was the first time I was being let go. It was disheartening. We were asked to sign a few papers and asked to wait for the settlements to be transferred into the account.

So, from the next day I was at home with my 2-year-old. At first I was feeling very sad about losing this job but at the same time I was happy that I can spend some extra time with my daughter, so I started to find happiness in this disguise.

OK, if this is the way it must be, I will take it on. I started applying in random vacancies, in companies that are located near me, and where not. But no luck.

I was told to keep applying and I just might get a call. So, I continued making calls and sending Emails. I felt very empty and missed the message at the end of the month on my phone about the salary being credited.

Time passed and I could not find anything for myself, like nothing, really!

The biggest question was what should I do the whole day????

No one had the answer to my question. So, I apart from playing with my girl, I also started cooking, I learnt many new dishes, this made me happy. Feeding people always made me feel good.

Since I had a desk job I had gained some weight at my work in these months, and I had to get rid of this before I get back to the same work life I had. So, I started a diet called “The Banting Diet”. This diet was introduced to me by my husband and to him by his boss. I never believed in diets but after seeing the results I was quite impressed and I also started to incorporate the diet in my routine. And I lost 7 kgs in like 2 months. Started feeling happy again. At least losing the fat and weight made me happy.

I also started spending a lot of time on the internet, Pinterest was one of my favorite apps. I used to spend hours getting inspired by the DIYs and crafts. Before I joined work, I spent time teaching kids craft and drawing, so it was always in my mind to create new things and I loved the DIYs.

 I started making things for my home taking inspiration from Pinterest.

I did things that I missed doing badly, things I used to do in my college days. I loved hosting the Youth Week at my college, so I thought if I can do that in Dubai as well. I contacted a few ladies who host their own exhibitions and got an opportunity to host as well as to do a small photoshoot for them, which by the way was my first time. During these two exhibitions, I met a lot of lovely women who are very talented and showcasing their talents in such exhibitions. Most of them are still very good friends of mine.

So, I just loved my break, though it was difficult in the beginning but all is well that ends well, I found a new job and am happy getting the message I spoke to u about earlier.

Best Home Remedies for Puffy Eyes for a Busy Working Woman

Well, I’m a working woman and soon after like a month or so I started noticing puffiness and redness under my eyes. For a few days, I thought that I just might be tired and this will eventually fade off.

But this did not go away even after taking proper rest or relaxing my eyes in between my work at office. I realized that it is there irrespective of the rest and taking breaks in-between the screen time.

It continued for a long time. I started looking tired all the time and sometimes office colleagues were worried if I was unwell. It was that time when I started paying attention to my under eye area.

I did not want to use any type of chemical based cream to my eye as the area was super sensitive. I’m listing below few methods I tried to reduce the puffiness.

• Rose water: I started spraying rose water as and when I can, even in the office just to cool them off. Which somehow did not work very well for me as I use mascara and Kajal, and you know what happens next. But I did this after I reach home and it has helped me to cool down the eyes a lot.
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• Green tea: I boiled green tea in a pan and stored it in a spray bottle. Used green tea using cotton eye pads. It works in visibly reducing the redness.
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• Aleovera gel: This is by far the best thing that has happened to me. I’ve fallen in love with the aloevera gel. I have tried both, gel from a fresh plant and buying from market. Before sleeping I wash my face with my face wash and then use tissues to pat it dry and then applied a little amount of the gel on my face and neck. I was surprised to see the results my puffiness and redness reduced in just one night. So, this is my favorite.
  

• Cucumber: I’ve also tried putting cucumber slices on my eyes, but I feel it just restricts my functionality in the day time. Plus, after office there was no time and no patience for this method.
  

• Other methods:

·         I tried oils also to reduce the fine lines around my eyes. I used castor oil mixed with almond oil on my face (which by the way is very heavy oil). It helped my skin keeping moisturized all day and visibly reduced the lines.

·         I also used cool pads for my eyes, which could only give temporary effect and smoothing to my eyes.

·         I tried cooling my fingers using ice and then pressing them against my eyes. I can’t tell how much relief it gave me at that point of time, but this is again a temporary measure.

So, in my experience, aloevera gel is the most effective and natural way to calm your sensitive areas on the face. It also helps in reducing the irritation caused due to sun burns. Specially if you live in a place like Dubai, you will get sun burns in line a jiffy.

I will continue using the gel every day to keep my skin healthy and natural looking.



Pic Credits : Google 

Bride's must have in D day purse!

Hi everyone,

Recently we celebrated our 6^th wedding anniversary. While going back through the memory lane with my husband we came across a few thing that still made us laugh or think thank God I had that or I wish we had that.

I miss being a bride, all the pampering, the drama, makeup and just everything.

A lot of times I was asked by my cousins and friends to share a checklist of the things that a bride should have in her purse on the day of the wedding, apart from the vanity (you can’t take the vanity case to the stage).

So I thought that I’ll share my list of things that a new bride should have in her purse at the time of the ceremony.

To start with:

·         Extra Bindis: As an Indian bride I put side bindis along with the main one above my eyebrows. And even though my wedding was in February which is cold I was sweating because of the heavy dress and heavy makeup. My makeup artist tried her level best to stick them properly but still by the time barat arrived one or two bindis dropped.So to avoid that situation you must always keep extra set of bindis in your bag.

·         A bunch of safety pins: Safety pins are a saviour. In a wedding I had attended, a BIG wardrobe malfunction happened with the poor bride. Since she was wearing a very heavy lehanga, the tie could not hold the dress for long and it broke. The bride realized it in a jiffy and held her dress and came of the stage. Safety pins came to rescue then. Using big sized pins her lehnga was in place again.

Remember to keep different size pins in your bag.

·         Same Lip colour: With the long photo sessions and the “Fera” ceremony the lipsticks tend to fade away. To avoid this situation always carry the same lip color that you are wearing on the D day.

·         Small Mirror: This is a must. To keep a check on how are you looking you must keep a small mirror. Like to apply the lipstick or bindi you need that. Sometimes there is no body around that you can trust with putting the lipstick but you. So keep it handy.

·         Tissues (Wet and facial tissues): Tissues are a must again. They help you in the Vidaai time, when tears fall down with a deep heart. Wet wipes are for any stains of makeup or anything. OMG I had haldi on my hands which transferred to my face in no time. So I needed wet wipes to get rid of that.Look at my nose.. all yellow!! Yet one of my favorite pictures, we were so happy!!

·         Compact powder: It’s very important to keep a compact powder in your purse. As I said sweat makes things difficult. To avoid the fading and melting away of makeup keep touching up your makeup with the compact.

·         Kajal: Since I have very oily lids and watery waterline, I have to keep retouching it. To keep my kajal in place my makeup artist did her best but still it kept fading up. So Kajal is a must for brides like me.

·         Ear buds: Better to keep one or two buds in your purse, it is helpful when the kajal smudges or the lipstick moves a little buds become your friend. Use a bud tip to clean the edges.

So that’s all that a bride needs to keep in the purse on her wedding day.

I will come up with an article on what all should be in the vanity very soon. Thanks for reading! Happy Wedding! Enjoy to the fullest, it is indeed the best day of a girl’s life!