Photo blocks!!

Yayyy! Am so excited just by the idea of photo blocks! Basically, they are wooden blocks with pictures and/or text on the sides of the blocks. I wish I could show you few of them, but do not want to trespass somebody's private pictures. Pinterest has so many of them here.

Be it colored or vintage looking, they all look so great. And the best part is they can be done so easily. All you need is wooden blocks, mod podge and some awesome photos. Alright, so wooden blocks are not easy to come by in India. But I am sure, I can look up some alternative. You can make your own mod podge by mixing equal parts of fevicol and water. 

I keep thinking I don't need a printer and then I see these fabulous DIYs and my mind spins again :) Here is a quick DIY. Can't wait to try!

http://www.somewhere-in-the-middle.com/diy-photo-blocks/

The crafty people

To start off, I am not one of the lucky few who was bitten with the creativity bug. But more recently, I found myself seeking a creative outflow for my energy. In my quest to find simple DIYs, I came across so many fascinating ideas. I am amazed that people can be so talented. There is an incredible lot of quick and easy stuff to try out on the net. I can't wait!

Here are my favorites.

DazzleDIY  
I simply love this girl! Her DIYs are so easy to make AND she believes in recycle, reuse.

The Dating Divas  
This site is full of lovely, romantic ideas for the love of your life.

Exploding Love Box!  
Cute but hard for me to make :(

Reel or Real

I love reality shows. Not all of them. But most. These shows bring us closer to the world we live in. Often, our lives get so busy that we fail to notice what the person next to us is doing or going through. When I watch a talent hunt or a competition, I realize how varied the human nature can be. During the auditions, we see the participants come with their life story, their struggles, their hopes and their dreams. It may be a housewife who wants to prove to the world that she can do more or a survivor from cancer who decided to have a one up on life. As they progress, we watch them getting better by the day, overcoming their fears and learning new stuff. At the end of it, we share a bond with our fellow beings on this planet, not knowing that through their journey we have crossed our own.

At some point of time, I look into myself and ask what is my passion, what is it that drives me? How would I define myself? When there is a tough situation in the show, I wonder what my decision would be in that scenario. When the cameras roll to the personal lives of the contestants, more often than not, there is always a battle. I draw parallels to my life and thank my blessings. More than all, I love the fact that these people were able to overcome their battle. They were biding their time for that one chance which will change their lives. And when they are presented with that opportunity, they give it their all. Some with their god gifted talent and some through sheer hard work.

The outcome might not always be as expected. There can only be one winner for the show. There might be many shows which are scripted and may have pre-decided favorites. But people learn to move on with the quote "The deserving always win" or "Life is not always fair" depending on who won :) The underlying fact never changes that the show provided a platform for the contestant to show case his talent. It slowly built a confidence in the person to face the world. At the same time, it makes sure he is grounded by showing that there are others who are better or as good as him.

The reality shows instill a belief that there is HOPE for all. It is like Cinderella's fairy godmother, twirling its magic wand, bringing magic to people's lives. There are so many shows to discuss. Rather than making this one long post, I am going to break it down into several posts because I think each show has its own specialty and deserves its own space.

P.S: I realized today that I had been spelling "specialty" as "speciality" all through. Thanks spell check! :P

Creating custom search engine for Firefox

Sometime back, I replaced Google and created a custom search engine in Firefox. I found it very helpful. Recently, I happened to install something which removed my custom search engine :( I tried fiddling with about:config but no luck. After a lot of browsing, I found this add-on which I used the previous time. It is quick and easy to use. Sp pass it on :)

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/add-to-search-bar/