A Happy Girl Writes

Hello you happy unicorn. I am Chinmayee, an aspiring writer, welcome to my blog. Here I write about health, beauty and life in general. Head over to my social medias for the daily dose of positivity and happiness. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AHappyGirlWrites/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/a.happy.girl.writes/ https://twitter.com/A_Happy_Girl2 http://www.mirakee.com/ahappygirlwrites https://in.pinterest.com/happygirlwrites https://weheartit.com/ahappygirlwrites

Monday, July 28, 2014

DIY Friendship Bracelet

Hello my dear friends. I hope you all are having an amazing day. Friendship day is just around the corner so I thought I would share with you easy DIY friendship bracelet. So here we go.

Things you will need:

1. Embroidery threads in 3 colors

2. Scissor

3. Cute button

4. Fabric glue (optional)

Procedure:

1. Wrap the thread around your wrist thrice like shown.

2. Get another thread of same length in same color so that you have two threads of same color.

3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for remaining two colors.

4. Bring all the threads together & make a knot at the middle of the thread as shown. The loop should be big enough to fit in the button.

5. Attach this to a cardboard or tape it down to a surface.

6. You should have six threads on both sides as shown.

7. Now you have to fishtail braid the threads. For this bring the outer most strand (white) to the middle.

8. Repeat for the other side as well.

9. Repeat steps 7 and 8 for rest of the bracelet. Make sure you keep the order of the colors uniform throughout the bracelet.

10. Once you reach the desired length, tie a knot at the end as shown.

11. Grab 1 or two strands and thread the button through it as shown.

12. Tie a knot to secure the button. It’s better to double knot it.

13. Cut the excess threads and your bracelet is ready. You can put a dot of fabric glue at the knots to secure it well. But my knots are really tight so I didn’t need to do that :D

So friends I hope you like this short and sweet article. If you decide to make this bracelet for your friends, do post a picture on my facebook page. My dear friends, I wish you all a very Happy Friendship Day in advance.

Goodbye my dear friends and I will see you soon. Until then Keep Smiling. Please do follow my blog, like the facebook page. (https://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Happy-Girl/292903830872974?ref_type=bookmark) and follow me on twitter (https://twitter.com/A_Happy_Girl2). If you have any suggestions or questions, please comment below.

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Dear Mr. / Miss Hater……

Hello all you smiley faces. I hope you all are having an amazing weekend. So as the title suggests, this article is going to be about haters. The reason behind writing this article is really special.

Last Sunday I wrote about types of annoying people and on that article I got my very first hate comment. It was by certain Mr. /Miss ANONYMOUS. What he/she wanted to tell me was that I had no skills to become a writer and the whole article was pathetic. Let’s first salute Mr. /Miss HATER for giving his/her extremely frank opinion. But can we just have a moment of silence for the grammar in the comment??? I am pretty sure nobody read that comment because I deleted it as soon as I read it. There were two reasons behind this action of mine. The first one was that the comment was really rude. It could have triggered a war of words on my blog which I wanted to avoid. The second one was it was spreading a negative message about my blog. I mean I am having a really hard time getting people to read my blog and any negativity would have completely spoiled my ambition of becoming a good blogger. The second one was little selfish though.

I was on Gmail when I got the email saying that I have got a new comment on my post. My first reaction was of pure happiness. It was something like “Yayyyy….. I got a new comment…” But when I opened the email and read the comment, the color just drained from my face. My whole body started shaking and this usually happens when I am very angry or hurt. And at that time I was experiencing both feelings together. My next action was to go to my blog and hit the ‘remove content’ button in the comments section. After doing this, it took me few minutes to pull myself together. And then I started thinking about the comment which by the way is still is in my Gmail inbox and it will be there until the end of my blogging journey. I thought why anyone would put a comment like that. There were two reasons that I could think of.

1. That person might be in a very bad mood when he/she came across my article. And then that person realizes that he/she possess one of the qualities that falls under my annoying list.

2. The person has some personal problem with me and wants to cause pain to me.

Any one of these reasons might have led that person to post such a rude comment.

I then went into a deep thinking phase. And then I thought that I thank everyone who likes my blog and appreciates my work. Why shouldn’t I thank this HATER given that he/she did read my blog? Until that time I was getting a little bit of praise and encouragement for my work and then suddenly this comment came in. It’s being in a blissful dream and then suddenly you fall from the bed and are brought back to reality. I had just started to think that I can write (thanks to the love shown by all of you my lovely readers) but this person actually brought me back to the reality that I still need to improve a lot. So such comments would help be humble and grounded forever. I knew that I would face criticism and hate at some point of my blogging journey. I just thought that it came too early. But I am an optimist and such incidents trigger me to perform better. I am like a catapult (गुलेल), the more you pull the string backwards, better are the chances of the object hitting the target perfectly. I do follow this lovely quote from the movie ‘A pursuit of happyness’

The moral is that if anyone hates you or criticizes you or tries to pull you back from your goal, it is okay because HATE ≡ SUCCESS. So Mr. /Miss HATER if you are reading this article, all I want to say is thank you for hating my article. You are just helping me to become a better writer. So friends I hope you like this article about my HATE comment experience. If you have any such experience, let me know in the comments below.

Friday, July 25, 2014

Rules of Healthy Eating

Hello my healthy friends. I hope you all are having an amazing day till now. Today I am going to share with you some of my healthy eating tips (again). So here we go.

1. The best tip that I can give anyone to be healthy is to eat fresh homemade food. It is the best food ever.

2. Cut down on all the tempting fast foods, mouth watering fried foods as well as sugary delicacies.

3. Ignore all types of caffeinated drinks and sodas (including diet sodas). Instead drink something that actually does something good to your body. This includes green tea, coconut water, green smoothies, etc

4. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables especially the greens (spinach, fenugreek and other varieties of locally available greens)

5. Stock up on whole grains and (fresh) sprouts.

6. Eat healthy snacks like homemade popcorn, khakra made with very little oil, murmura, poha (without potatoes), upma, etc

7. Consume nuts and dry fruits (in moderation).

8. Not being racist but replace all whites with browns. That means say no refined sugar, refined flour (maida) or any food made with that. Instead use whole wheat or multi grain flour. Replace sugar with dates, jiggery, and honey.

9. Drink at least 2.5-3 liters of water every day.

10. Start your day by drinking a tablespoon of lemon juice mixed in half a glass of water. This works as a detoxifier.

11. Always chew your food well. Researchers say that our brain requires 20 minutes to know whether our stomach is full or not. So take your time to finish your food.

12. Instead of having two heavy meals, break them down into 4-6 small meals.

13. Follow a specific time table and eat at specific time intervals throughout the day. If on some days you get hungry in between these intervals, don’t worry eat some healthy snacks or fruits.

14. Even if you are eating healthy food, don’t over eat it.

15. If you really want to be healthy, reduce stress from your life.

And lastly I just want to tell you all that it is okay f you aren’t able to follow these rules on some days (Everybody has such days). Only make sure that you follow them for most of the days (say 95%of the days). So here are some rules of healthy eating that I follow. If you think I missed any rule, let me know in the comments section.

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Hair Care Tips

Hey smiley faces. I hope you all are doing great. Today I am going to share with you some of my hair care tips. The most important hair care tip is BE GENTLE with your hair. If you treat your hair well, it’s going to stay with you or else it will leave you. So here are my tips in 5 steps.

1. Brushing:

Tip 1 - You should brush your hair at least twice or thrice a day.

Tip 2 – Never brush your hair when it is wet.

Tip 3 – Always use a wide toothed comb/ brush.

Tip 4 – Always brush your hair before taking a shower.

Tip 5 – Always brush your hair from the tips to roots.

2. Oiling:

Tip 1 – Oil your hair at least twice a week. Its always better to oil your hair night before you take a head bath.

Tip 2 – Remember that oil is the food for your hair.

Tip 3 – Section your hair into 2 or 4 parts and then apply oil to your hair.

Tip 4 – Take a little amount of oil on your finger tips and then gently massage it into your roots.

Tip 5 – Make sure that you brush your hair after oiling to distribute the oil evenly.

3. Washing:

Tip 1 – Use mild shampoo and conditioner.

Tip 2 – Mix little amount of water with the shampoo to make its application easy. Apply shampoo from roots to tips.

Tip 3 – Apply conditioner from mid length of your hair and work your way towards the tips.

Tip 4 – Apply conditioner, leave it for few minutes and then rinse it off. This just makes your hair look beautiful.

Tip 5 – Do not wash your hair more than twice a week. And use cold/lukewarm water to wash it

4. Drying:

Tip 1 – Always use a soft towel to dry your hair.

Tip 2 – Just after you have finished rinsing off the conditioner, twist your hair lightly, sandwich it in between your palms and remove excess water from it.

Tip 3 – Next wrap your hair in a towel just like so. Let your hair sit like that for a few minutes and then you can repeat tip no. 3. Only now use your towel to sandwich your hair. Don’t rub the towel vigorously against your hair.

Tip 4 – Avoid putting your hair into a turban.

Tip 5 – Let your hair air dry. Use dryer only when it’s absolutely necessary.

5. Styling:

Tip 1 – Try to avoid heat to style your hair.

Tip 2 – Do not wear tight hairstyles for too long.

Tip 3 – Also don’t wear high ponytails or buns for a long time.

Tip 4 – Let your hair be free of any rubber bands or hairstyles atleast for some time every day.

Tip 5 – And last but not least get your trimmed to keep split ends at bay.

And the most important tip is to maintain a healthy lifestyle for healthy hair. So friends these are some of my hair care tips. These tips have helped me to recover from extreme hair fall that I went through last year. I hope you find it helpful too. This article was requested by my very dear friend. So I thank her for pushing me into writing this article :D . If you have any hair care tips that you would like to share with me and all my lovely readers, please leave them in the comments below.

Goodbye my dear friends and I will see you on soon. Until then Keep Smiling. Please do follow my blog, like the facebook page. (https://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Happy-Girl/292903830872974?ref_type=bookmark) and follow me on twitter (https://twitter.com/A_Happy_Girl2). If you have any suggestions or questions, please comment below.

Sunday, July 20, 2014

10 Types of Annoying People

Hello all you smiley faces. I hope you all are having an amazing weekend. Today I am going to lament about 10 categories of people that I really annoy me. So here we go.

1. People who pronounce/spell my name incorrectly – These people are on the top of my I ‘annoying people’ list because I always had a hard time explaining people that my name is spelled as Chinmayee and not Chinmayi or Chinmay(that is a boy’s name by the way). I know my name is little difficult to pronounce and a bit difficult to spell. But that doesn’t mean that anyone can pronounce or spell my name as the wish.

2. People who make spelling/grammatical mistakes all the time – Everyone makes spelling/grammatical mistakes sometimes but there are some who make such mistakes all the time. And I really want to gift a dictionary/grammar book to these annoying people.

3. People who take duck face selfies – Nothing annoys me more than the duck face selfies that are becoming really popular on the social media these days. I think that a duck face selfie makes you look stupid. The only person who looked cute with a duck face was Donald Duck. So while taking a selfie just smile okay???? It would make you look so much better.

4. People who send friend requests to anonymous people – There is a breed of totally idiot people who send friend requests to anonymous people saying that they want to be friends with you just because you are good looking. And then there are some whose friend request you might have accepted just because you have many mutual friends. These people barely know you and still they want to be your best friend for the same reason. Well both of them are equally annoying and you have no choice but to block such people.

5. People who are always buttering up others – There are times when you have to butter up someone to get your job done but if you do it all the time, I am annoyed. I have actually experienced more hatred for being outspoken (also known as being moohfat) and not being buttery. I think it’s better to call a spade a spade rather than calling it a sugar coated spade straight out of Willy Wonka’s garden.

6. People who are confused all the time – I am a type of person who takes quick decisions most of the times. Which is why I get annoyed with people who are confused and can’t make decisions.

7. People who boast – I would just say that, for such type of people there is a special place in hell where they are only given bitter green smoothies for food.

8. People who can’t communicate properly – We are humans and we have got the skill to communicate through languages. So I do get annoyed when the perfectly normal people are not able to use this skill. There are many people who can express without language so why can’t the people who know languages???

9. People with fake accent – People who speak with a fake accent are really annoying and they are bound to make a fool (popat) of themselves. I don’t understand why anyone would want to copy the accent of some other country. Your accent represents your country and culture so you should be proud of it.

10. People who don’t read my blog – I am writer so it’s pretty natural for me to get annoyed with people who don’t read my blog posts and ignore my facebook updates. I also get annoyed by people who ignore my blog just because it’s written by me. I want to tell all these people to judge me by my work and not by what you think or you might have heard about me. So if you don’t read my blog your internet speed will go down to 10 kbps. :D

So friends these are some of the categories of annoying people. I hope you all understand that this is a light-hearted article, not to be taken personally at all by anyone. I just wrote it to bring a smile on your face. And if it did, let me know in the comments section. If you have any more additions to this ‘annoying people’ list, then list it in the comments below. Even if you have any above mentioned quality, its okay we all have imperfections. I might have a quality that annoys you so we are equal.

Friday, July 18, 2014

Beauty Jugaad (dupes)

Hello beautiful ladies. I hope you all are having an amazing day till now. Today I am going to share with you some of my low cost beauty jugaads. So without further ado let’s get jugaading, shall we?

1. Coconut oil – This magical ingredient is a must in every girl’s makeup kit. Coconut oil is not only great for your hair but it is great for your skin as well. Coconut oil is a great low cost makeup remover. Yes ladies, it does remove waterproof makeup as well. All you need to do is put generous amount of coconut oil on a cotton ball and then scrub your face gently. All of the makeup will be washed off in just few minutes. So the next time you need to remove your waterproof kajal and mascara, just pull out the good old coconut oil from your drawer.

2. Rose water – Every girl carries a bottle of gulab jal, right? And yes it is an amazing beauty jugaad. It is an essential ingredient in many face packs. But did you know that it works as a great toner as well. It helps to close the pores and this in turn helps to reduce blackheads, whiteheads and even pimples. I have a whole post dedicated to my best friend gulab jal, that will be up on next Tuesday. So please do come back for that.

3. Ice – Ice is a great toner just like rose water. It also does help to reduce the redness of your skin. If a pimple pops on your face just before an important day, wrap an ice cube in a towel and dab it on your pimple. Also after you are done threading or plucking your eyebrows, apply some ice around that area to reduce the redness. So can we say that ice is a beauty saviour?

4. Beetroot juice – Have you ever noticed the deep red colour of a beetroot? As it is deep red, it can be used as lip and cheek stain. It also helps to reduce the ‘Dark Lip’ problem. If you want a rosy flush to you cheeks, apply some beetroot juice to the apples of your cheeks. But remember to store the beetroot juice in an airtight container in the freezer.

5. Castor oil – This is the oil for hair growth and that includes your eyebrows and eyelashes as well. So if you have bald patches on your eyebrows, apply castor oil on that area at night. Soon you will see hair growth in that area. As for your eyelashes, put castor oil in an old mascara bottle and use the wand to apply the oil on your lashes (this is less messy way)

6. Baby powder – This has two major uses. It can be used as a dry shampoo to cure the ‘Greasy Hair’ condition. All you have to do is rub some baby powder on your scalp. This is perfectly safe as baby powder contains very less amount of chemicals. Baby powder can also be used as a makeup setting powder. This tip is extremely useful for oily or combination skinned beauties.

7. Vaseline – This not only treats chapped lips but it also works as great oil for your cuticles. You can also use this as a hand and foot cream. It does help to soften your hands, feet as well as cuticles.

So girls these were some of my beauty jugaads. I hope you found this article helpful and if you did then please leave a comment below. And if you have any special beauty jugaad that you would like to share with my lovely readers, then leave them in the comments.

Sprouts Salad

Hello my healthy friends. I hope you all are doing great. Today I am going to share with you a very simple and quick sprouts salad recipe. Sprouts are the power house of nutrients as they are filled with vitamins, proteins, antioxidants, etc. So this recipe great for this time of the year when you don’t get good quality vegetables (at reasonable prices of course) to make nutritious salads. So friends without further ado let’s get started.

Ingredients (for 2-3 servings):

1. 1 cup sprouts (I used matki also known as moth beans)

2. 2-3 tbsp each of onion, cucumber, tomato and green peas

3. ¼ tsp chili powder

4. ½ tsp chaat masala

5. 1 tsp lemon juice

6. Pinch of black pepper

7. Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. In a large bowl mix chaat masala, chili powder, black pepper, salt and lemon juice.

2. Add in the sprouts and vegetables.

3. Mix it well until all the sprouts and veggies are covered with the marinate. And now your salad is ready. You can even put it in the refrigerator for half an hour and then serve it chilled.

So friends this is my version of sprouts salad. I know it’s a really simple recipe but I had to share this with you because I just love this salad. I hope you give this recipe a try. Let me know in the comments whether you like it or not. If you have your version of sprouts salad, then leave it in the comment because I would love to hear about it.

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Clouds Nail Art (Easy Nail Art Design)

Hey Smiley faces. I hope you are having an amazing day. Today I am going to share with you an easy clouds nail art perfect for the rainy season. It is an easy nail art and it requires no special tools. It looks great on any length of nails. :D So let’s get started.

You will need:

1. Protecting Base coat (Oriflame nail shield)

2. Sky blue nail polish (Maybelline color show Blueberry Ice)

3. White nail polish (Maybelline color show Porcelain Party)

4. Black nail polish (Elle 18 no.35)

5. Light grey nail polish (Elle 18 no.04)

6. Clear nail polish/ Top coat nail polish (Elle 18 no.27)

7. Few tooth picks

Procedure:

1. Apply the base coat to protect your natural nails. Let it dry completely.

2. Apply sky blue nail polish on all the nails. Let it dry completely.

3. Using the tooth pick dipped in white polish make small closely placed dots as shown. To get the shape of a cloud you have to make around 4-5 dots.

4. Repeat the clouds until you cover the entire nail. You can even make have clouds to cover the empty portions.

5. Make white clouds on all the nails except for the ring finger.

6. Now mix few drops of Black polish and light grey polish in a paper plate to get a dark grey colored polish. It should be somewhat like the dark rain filled clouds.

7. Now make the clouds using this color on the ring finger. You have to work quickly before the polish on the paper plate dries up.

8. Let all the nail polish dry completely. Then apply a coat of clear nail polish to make your manicure last longer.

So friends this is my take on this cloudy/rainy weather. You can either make all the clouds grey or all of them white. It is a very simple nail art design which doesn’t require any specialization. If I can do this nail art, anyone can do it. I actually asked my friend to be my model for this tutorial because I am still recovering from the broken nail disaster. I hope you like this nail art tutorial. If you did, then let me know in the comments down below. If you decide to recreate this design, do share your recreation with me on my facebook page.

Goodbye my dear friends and I will see you on Sunday with a slightly funny article.. Until then Keep Smiling. Please do follow my blog, like the facebook page. (https://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Happy-Girl/292903830872974?ref_type=bookmark) and follow me on twitter (https://twitter.com/A_Happy_Girl2). If you have any suggestions or questions, please comment below.

Sunday, July 13, 2014

10 Signs That You Suffer from OCRD (Obsessive Compulsive Reading Disorder)

Hey Smiley Faces. I hope you all are having an amazing weekend till now. Today I am going to share with you 10 signs that indicate that you suffer from OCRD or in simple words you are in love with books. I am in love with books so I know what it is to be a book addict. So here we go bookaholics.

1. You love the smell of new books – For a book addict, the smell of new books is the best scent in this entire world. It makes him/her extremely happy. And moreover they keep on buying new books to experience this smell again and again.

2. Bookstores/libraries are heaven for you – A book addict does lose the track of time when he/she is at the bookstore/library, searching for books. The bookstores feel like heaven and you just wanna be there forever or maybe until you find some amazing reads :D

3. You can’t leave a book until you finish reading it – The book lovers are crazy. They can stay up all night just to complete a book. I mean if I am in the middle of an amazing chapter in a book, I will continue reading even if it’s 2 in the morning.

4. You are always on a look out for book sales – Come on who wouldn’t like to get more books for less money. So they always keep searching the internet for online book sales or news papers for bookstore sales.

5. You can lend someone anything except your books – The bookaholics are extremely possessive about their book collection. They refuse to let anyone borrow their books because they consider books as their wealth. Moreover they are afraid that the borrower would damage their book which in turn would give them a heart attack.

6. You give a dozen of instructions to the person who borrows your book – An avid book reader will recite a long list of instructions before anyone who borrows his/her books. If by chance; a book addict lends his book to someone then that someone is a lucky person indeed. But the chance of lending is one in a million.

7. You can use anything as a bookmark – Anything right from a pen to a tiny piece of paper can be used as a bookmark by the book addicts. They consider folding the tip of the page as a bookmark, a serious un- punishable crime.

8. People ask you for book recommendations – It’s natural for people to ask a book addict for book recommendations as he/she knows about a variety of books, new releases and also he/she knows which book is suitable for a non-book addict :D

9. You enter a trance state when you are reading – If reading a book is like meditation for you and it takes you into some other world where you cannot see anything except the book and you can’t hear anything except your mind reading the amazing lines written by the author, you are a die-hard fan of books for sure.

10. Your books are your best friends – If a bookaholic is sad or happy or lost or feeling alone, he/she will read a book. That is because books are his/her best friends or maybe even his/her life.

So friends, these are some signs that might help you to find out whether you are a book addict or not. If you are a book addict, you have a friend in me. If you know any other symptoms that indicate the signs of OCRD, the let me know in the comments down below. If you are not a OCRD patient, then share this post with someone who suffer from ORCD.