Puppy Love

I’m in love….in love with a 5-week-old St. Bernard puppy. I went over to a friend’s house to see their latest addition and fell head over heels in love with the bundle of fur and innocence. Chubby and quiet, he was everything that a puppy is about…warmth, comfort, snuggles, naps.

Now to see me talk like this – I’ve never really been an out and out dog lover, the kind that get so comfortable with any dog. Because my hubby loves dogs and because I loved the book – ‘shadow the sheep dog’, we got a golden retriever puppy 2 years back. In the beginning, I was terrified of her sharp puppy teeth and piercing yelps, and she was scared of this adult, who was scared of her. It was a funny relationship – we tiptoed around each other, literally.

But slowly and steadily, we began to bond. It was a lot like an arranged marriage, where you learn to love the person slowly, one puppy step at a time. Today of course, Muffin (my golden girl) and I are buddies. Muffin initiated me to the world of puppies, and probably that’s why I was so comfortable with the bundle of joy I saw yesterday.

Do you plan to get a puppy? Or have you already got one? Do write in with your stories.

Photo credit: Dvijatman Kennel

Is entrepreneurship for you?

Photo credit: Work From Home Jobs

I was talking to a few friends yesterday. They are young mums armed with lofty degrees and substantial work experience. They’re smart, sincere and yearning to carve a niche out for themselves. A niche and career that they can balance while bringing up their kids and moving from one place to another (like me, they’re military wives). Since we often spend our lifetime in the boondocks and back-of-beyond places across the country, keeping ourselves on the career track can become challenging. Frequent postings, places that offer meagre work opportunities and the famous military social life, leaves us with fewer choices when it comes to work.

Having discovered the beauty of entrepreneurship (I run two businesses – Pink Elephant Writing Studio & Luscious Health), I mentioned the possibility of starting their own companies to my friends. Working from Home and starting small businesses is becoming the thing to do now. With several qualified mums out there, wanting to balance family and work, Mompreneurship is the way to go.

If, like my friends and me, you’re craving to chart your own career path, then here’s some inspiration to begin with:

Here’s  Bizzieliving, a fantastic blog to garner inspiration. It has some great interviews of women with small businesses.

Meet Rachel Anne Miller, a young designer, illustrator and mum, who runs her own creative studio.

Kate Rosenthal started the Stubby PencilStudio, where she creates and retails eco-friendly art material and stationary.

Dancing Elephant Studio was started by artist Jenny Kostecki Shaw. She works and lives with her young family in the mountains of Mexico.

Work At Home Woman - a treasury of info to get started!

p.s. While working from home is great, it isn't as easy as depicted in the photograph above ;)

A Homemade Life

There’s one particular blog that I often bumble over to, when I’m in the mood for a slower, more hands-on life. ‘Hands-on life’? Now, isn’t life hands on, you may ask. Well, in today’s day and age, where grocery is ordered online and veggies come from cans and packets, clothes from a catalogue or store and a meal often from a takeaway or a cook, life is more about delegation than DIY.

When life is whizzing us by, jet-set on deadlines, stress and general busyness, don’t you ever wish for a calmer spot, a more warm, home-grown life and an inner contentment that no corporate career can offer? Well, I certainly do. It was this decision to slow down and soak in everything that life has to offer that’s got me going DIY and hands-on in various aspects of my life.

My meals come from my soup pot and wok, where I cook them with chutzpah and love. My clothes from the village weavers; veggies from the local haat (Indian village market) and our vegetable garden; healing from holistic ways; employment from entrepreneurship; and, entertainment from simple sources.

The endeavour is to live a green, homemade life, wherever and whenever possible. So, coming back to the blog I love bumbling over to – it’s called SouleMama and is all about her family’s life, as they go about spinning and living a warm, happy homemade life.

I find a lot of inspiration in how Amanda and her family live, and I hope you will too.

Photo credit: SouleMama - Amanda Blake Soule