00:00Hi, my name is Mayra and welcome to my Sweet Digs.
00:03I live here with my husband and we pay $2900 for one bedroom apartment in Long Island City.
00:08I think the price is really reasonable for this area and we actually got a sweet deal.
00:15This is my bright little bedroom.
00:18So my husband and I, we travel a lot. He's gone every week for four days and we also take
00:23a lot of trips.
00:23So we made sure that our bedroom does not feel like hotel and it feels very homely when we come
00:29back.
00:30My biggest plush in the bedroom would definitely be the Casper mattress.
00:33It has the memory foam, it has that spring, it has that therapeutic something something.
00:38All I know that it feels really good to sleep on it.
00:41While decorating my place, I really wanted to have Indian textiles and Indian colors here.
00:46So every time I go back to India, I make sure that I get a lot of bedshades, pillow covers,
00:50rugs from there and have that pop of color.
00:52I love doing DIY projects here and there.
00:55So one very simple DIY hack I did was this IKEA hack.
01:00I use spice jar racks as my side tables so that it looks spacious and I don't need to have
01:05the bulky tables.
01:07The bedroom was very small to work with so I did not want to put any bulky pieces on the
01:11wall.
01:11So I went for the Dreamcatcher because I love them and I got a very basic frame from HomeGoods and
01:17I did my own DIY.
01:18I also added peacock feathers there because my name means peacock and they always feel lucky when they are around.
01:24Growing up, I have this strong memory of seeing my mom in her sarees and that is the memory I
01:30will always have.
01:31So when I was making my own storage here, I thought why not use my mom's old sarees.
01:36So there is makeup storage bag, there are clothing storage bags from that and every time I see it, it
01:41just reminds me of her.
01:42My husband and I have a lot of clothes, especially our Indian clothes from our wedding, they take a lot
01:48of space.
01:49So it was really good to have a walk-in closet where everything can be stuffed in and nothing has
01:54to be outside.
01:55My husband and I met online. We spoke for eight months or something.
02:00So he came back to India just to meet me.
02:02We met once and within a month we got engaged and now we are happily married since the last four
02:08years.
02:10And this is my spacious, bright kitchen.
02:13I love this kitchen. There is so much storage here. It has come with its own pantry.
02:18There is a window there where I can enjoy the view while I am cooking.
02:22This is definitely one of our happy places where we love spending time.
02:25We love to cook. We are always up to something here. We are always experimenting.
02:30He actually makes really good pasta and I make a lot of nice curries.
02:34So every Indian kitchen has to have this spice box, which has all our important spices, which are very essential
02:42for Indian cooking.
02:43So having that here was very helpful. It was gifted to my husband by his mom.
02:48We love the smell of Indian cooking. It just reminds us of our home.
02:51Being in New York City, there's always shortage of space.
02:54But when we came into this apartment and we saw that this kitchen came with really big, nice pantry, I
03:00thought I have won a jackpot.
03:01Coming from India, we have so many dry snacks. We have so many spices.
03:05I needed a space to store all of them. So it was a blessing to have that pantry here.
03:11Because I cook a lot and I love cooking, I thought why not have my own herb garden as my
03:16mother has back home.
03:17It has mint, basil, cilantro and lemon balm.
03:21My biggest plush in kitchen would definitely be the appliance over there.
03:25It's rotimatic. It makes Indian naan, bread, everything. Put turf in it, water and oil.
03:30It will knit the dough on its own. It will flatten it and it will also roast it.
03:35So all you have to do is just sit back and enjoy freshly roasted naans.
03:41This is our living room, dining area space.
03:44So the vibe of my place, or the entire apartment for that matter, was to keep it very simple and
03:49very cozy.
03:50We also have a lot of our family and friends coming over and staying over, so we needed it to
03:54be multifunctional.
03:56My most sentimental item in this house would definitely be this dining table, which my husband has made for me.
04:02Back in India, most of our furniture is customized.
04:05A carpenter will come to your house, he'll sit there and he'll make the furniture for you.
04:08So coming from that, we really wanted a piece of furniture which is customized just for us.
04:13We did this chip and join against kind of a thing where I designed it and he made it for
04:17me.
04:17We haven't started collecting too much art, like we only have two art pieces, but those are very important to
04:23us.
04:23One is an oil painting, which has been done by my best friend.
04:27This is just one of a kind thing, which I have and nobody in the world will have that same
04:32painting.
04:32Another work of art, if you may, is our picture ledge, where my portrait is there, which is my husband's
04:39favorite portrait of mine from our wedding.
04:41I feel it's a little narcissist to be there, but well, he likes it.
04:44So when I finished my master's in marketing, I was looking for a full-time job, but I did not
04:49find anything which was as creative as I wanted.
04:51I thought, why not just start a blog, because I already travel a lot.
04:54We go out and explore a lot of restaurants in New York City, so I thought, might as well just
04:59do that.
05:00I have a website blog called More with Mayura, where I blog about food, travel, and everything in New York
05:06City.
05:06Being a blogger has definitely influenced my lifestyle and the way I keep my home.
05:10I try to get a few things from each and every place I visit and try to incorporate that in
05:17my decor.
05:17It could be just a short glass, it could be a frame, it could be anything.
05:21And also I try to get inspired by it, I think, just the way they live their life.
05:25Back home in India, our parents' houses, they have this small temple in the house,
05:29where we have put all our gods and we lit up a candle over there and we just pray.
05:34It's for our own positivity that it just helps us feel good.
05:39We actually got a decent-sized bathroom. It has ample storage. I love the marble tiles.
05:45I wanted to just take that marble-type color, which was grey, and I wanted to just incorporate that color
05:51everywhere.
05:51Theme of my bathroom, you can say, is very smoky and foggy, just like hot shower.
05:56The one thing I dislike about it though, that I would love to have a separate bathtub and shower.
06:02I love this neighborhood because obviously for the view and the waterfront, it's like the best view in entire New
06:08York City.
06:08I love waking up to this view and seeing it as the last thing before I sleep.
06:13It's very lively, it's very nice, it's very safe. We literally get to enjoy each and every season over here.
06:18I think when we moved in and we kind of arranged the furniture and the first time we cooked in
06:22this apartment
06:23and we had our meal at this table, I think that's when it started feeling like our home.
06:28We have been married for four years and we have already moved four apartments,
06:32so we have finally found our home and we are not moving anytime soon.
06:35We're back.
06:37We're back in the kitchen.
06:40I love to hear which of the people.
