DIY: Balcony Ideas - Wall Murals

Want to test the creativity side of the brain? then balcony ideas are the best food for thoughts. If we sit back and think then we will get an enormous list of ideas that we can try there. There wouldn't be a single person who hasn't experienced sipping a tea or coffee in Balcony. Even though the balcony is the smallest square area on any apartment building, we all love to spend quality time with our loved ones by sitting, talking, playing etc.

Balcony or sit out is a special space in every home where we would try our hobbies like potting the plants, using upcycled old furniture, novel lighting systems, painting the walls etc., to name few.  When it comes to the balcony, we will be more courageous in attempting new thoughts as it is a small square area and is mostly private to our family members, so even our idea didn't turn up well, we take it easy.

Before the Murals

One such idea we got is wall murals. Instead of a single lite tone color all over the balcony, we wanted to give some life to it by adding more active colors. Wall mural are what we finally decided on rather than just active colors. We were not professional painters, not even a painters; Oh God, the last painting I did was for my high school drawing class!! Based on our proficiency level, we chose to draw a tree with simple branches. No doubt, Google is always the third eye, from so many tree models we searched, we shortlisted to three and started our rough sketch on the wall.

Materials that are required

1. Mural model
2. Chalk pieces
3. Different varieties/widths of paint brushes
4. Paint
5. Sandpaper
6. Hand gloves 
7. Waste clothes

Paints are required brushes

The paint we selected was Asian Royal paint, this is 100% odorless and is stain-free paint. Most of the paint shop has the base paint and instantly prepares the color we chose from the base paint. And the Asian Royal can be easily cleaned from our skin if paint spills on us.

Step 1 of the art

If the wall is dirty then having a coat with emulsion is good. Low-cost emulsions like Tractor can be applied 5 to 6 hours before starting the mural work.

Finished masterpiece

One more snap

Work like this will keep us engaged on the weekends and also cherish us every moment we see it. Also, ideas like this will convert the balcony into a livable area rather a dumping area.

DIY : Pizza Dosa

Dosa is a staple food in southern region of India. The first step of dosa preparation is its batter; the batter is prepared from urad dal (white lentils) and rice. Once the batter is ready, it will be poured on a hot pan. 

As it is boredom to have same dosa everyday, people came up with onion dosa, masala dosa, podi dosa and much more varieties like that. One such variety that recently started up among younger generation is 'Pizza Dosa'; this after the mania on Pizza.

I use to make this pizza dosa on a relaxed Saturday afternoon for a delicious & drooling lunch. The main ingredients is a set of favorite vegetables. One of my friend told me the secrete of cooking is on how we cut vegetables; for each dish the type of cutting differs and it plays important role is taste & easiness in eating.

Main ingredients are as follows

1. Dosa batter
2. Set of vegetables
3. Cheese
4. Ghee
5. Chili flakes 
6. Oregano flakes
7. Dry fruits (Optional)

Cut Vegetables

 As I mentioned earlier; the shape of cut matters for best taste of vegetables and easiness in eating. I sliced the onion, did round cut the tomato & horizontal cut for capsicum.

TIP: Watch Youtube videos on cutting different vegetables if very new to cooking.

While making pizza dosa, keep the flame low, this is because it need more time bake the upper part of dosa. In hot pan, pour one or two ladle of batter (depending on the size of pizza we want), spread the cut vegetables on top of it, Lay cheese on top it and pour ghee on the sides. Sprinkle oregano & chili flakes and close it with lid. Open it after couple of minutes, we can feel the smell of oregano. 

Ready to eat Pizza Dosa

Closer look

Now the vegetables would have cooked properly and it will cut easily when we bite. Enjoy & indulge into the taste of freshly prepared Pizza Dosa. 

DIY : Delicious and simple dessert

I prepared this very simple yet delicious dessert. It wont take more than 5 mins to prepare. I first ate this dessert in VV Puram food streets in Bangalore. When you are going to VV Puram, try it out. It is available in the corner shop which is diagonally opposite to Nandini milk parlor.

Ingredients:

1. Banana
2. Gulqand/Gulkand (Rose petals jam)
3. Almonds
4. Cashew
5. Ghee
6. Honey
7. Vanilla ice cream (optional)

Slice the banana into equal pieces and arrange it properly in serving plate, spread 3 spoons of Gulkand above the sliced bananas. Put broken cashew and almonds above it, now pour one spoon of ghee and honey. Optionally we can add a scope of vanilla ice cream before pouring ghee and honey.

Must try dessert

Now its ready and time to get mesmerized by the mixed taste of gulqand and banana. Enjoy !!! :)

DIY: Indoor water fountain

All of us might have seen many different varieties of indoor water fountain in all stores and in all ranges.

After seeing the beauty and hearing its soothing sound, I wanted to make one by myself :) While thinking for the kind of material, first my thought went towards molding with white cement but that need lots of effort and precision in making the mold and then filling it with white cement. This seems to be imperfect and too messy.

Few days later when I went for a casual shopping, I saw a good deal put on plastic garden pots. Suddenly a thought stricken me 'why I should not use it for my fountain?'. So I started taking pots of different sizes and stacked it in different order. I was taking the pots of all sizes and playing with it. One guy in the store came close to me after seeing my actions and asked do I need any help? :D I told 'No, No'. Finally purchased few sets of pots, plates, hanging pots as per my design idea in my mind.

Next main thing to buy was the electrical water pump; for this I went to SP Road in Bangalore with my friend. We inquired in many shops and finally found one which sells it. The shop keeper showed us pump of different qualities, I chose one which costed 350 INR. In the same shop, I purchased tube, connector and water flow controller. When the seller asked me the reason for buying, I told college project :D. College days are the days which we can cherish till our last breath.

Apart from this I purchased few pebbles in different colors from a  nearby aquarium shop.

Now all set, ready for the day to fit all things together. In the process of fitting, my father helped me a lot in fine tuning the alignment and controlling the water flow. We may use m-seal adhesive to seal the parts permanently.

Three Tier fountain

One more snap

Closer look with the pebbles