Hot n Sexy Depp

Eye candy...


From Reuters -  "Pirates of the Caribbean" star Johnny Depp was named People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" on Wednesday, reclaiming a title he first won in 2003.


I have always thought he is super-awesome. Right from the movies he does, to the characters he portrays - i love every single thing about him. Read more of the article...


I also like Hugh Jackman. A lot. And then there is Pierce Brosnan. Ooh... he looks super-sexy in all of the James Bond movies. 


Among the Indian lot, Vinod Khanna looked super-awesome and very droolable. And of course Hrithik Roshan in Dhoom 2... he looks like a Greek God, with all the rippling muscles, the smooth dance moves and sexy attitude. 


I am thinking right now of the FRIENDS thing in which in one episode they all come up with a list of Hollywood stars they could sleep with, even if they were married / seeing someone, without it being considered cheating. 


So who would be on your list? Who are the men who you find hot? The ones that set your pulses racing... share your top 5, i am curious.

Baked a banana walnut cake...

... and ate half of it already.

Recipe:

Dry Ingredients - Mix in a bowl

1 Cup maida / wholewheat flour

1 Tsp Baking Powder

1/2 Tsp Baking Soda

1/4 Cup Powdered Sugar (I added 2 Tsps more)

Wet Ingredients - Whip in another bowl

1 Banana

4 Tbsp Oil

4 Tbsp Curd

1/4 Cup Water

Steps:

Mix the dry and wet ingredients together. (I ensure that i whip it in one direction only.)

Oil cake tin and pour mixture in.

Bake for 25 mins in oven.

Cool.

Enjoy.

Reupholstering the Dining Room Chairs

Even when we got our dining table, i din't like the fabric on the chairs too much. After almost 7 years, i finally did something about it. F-I-N-A-L-L-Y!!

I completed these a few days ago, but i have been lazy about taking a pic. Finally, i got around to it and here's what it looks like now.

Total spend - Rs.250 for the material + Rs. 65 for the Adhesive + Rs 20 for the nails

I totally love it. I don't know what took me so long, but I am glad it's done. Finally. :)

PS: The chairs are still not fixed to the frame. Anand has promised to do that and I guess it will be a while before that's done; so if you are coming home for dinner, be a little careful!

That's a thought...

Clutter Vs Dust

I can handle dust in my house. But a house that's cluttered gets me all edgy and worked up and makes me feel extremely uncomfortable. Just now, I saw this poster on a fridge that echoes my feelings and i had to post it instantly...

Image from Imperfectly Beautiful via BetterAfter

PS: Amanda painted her fridge handle white with spray paint that you get specially for plastic. Oh! how i wish we could get spray paint cans like that...

ABC of interior decorating

I saw this makeover about 2 weeks back and it's still imprinted in my head; despite the fact that I spend a lot of time online and see a lot of decor blogs and many many photographs.

Here's ABCHAO's bedroom makeover - stunning just doesn't begin to describe it.

Mmmmm...Dark colors have never looked so gorgeous.

PS: You can see Anna Beth Chao's blog and flickerstream for her kitchen and daughter's room makeover for more eye-candy. Have a great day and a fab week :)

Too much

There is so much clutter inside my head. Different voices speaking in different volumes that i cant seem to comprehend / get rid off. Ideas bursting / clashing / jumping / bumping. Wish i had something like this to help me. 

I will go now and finish upholstering the other two chairs that are waiting to look pretty. 

Image via 26 Olive Street on Etsy

Sunny Side Up office redecoration update

Went to madina market, old city today to pick up fabric for curtains / cushions / sofa / softboard for the SSU office. Spent Rs 2000 and got more than what i needed at less than what i thought it would cost.

Need to buy a little bit more. Something green and something yellow.

Walls are painted. Blue looks great. Yellow does too. The green is not so pretty. The grey the worst of it. 

Tomorrow the cane sofa is being painted. Fingers crossed as that's grey too. Should i go for black?

Bought a cot and a bench, cheap of mango wood. Got them painted too - a red-pink color which looks yummy.

Tomorrow, place an order for cushions, find a tailor for the curtains, buy the green and yellow, meet a friend for lunch to lend my car for the weekend and probably stay over at a friend's place.

How was your day?

The Perfect Study

I actually mmmm-ed aloud when i saw this... study come true

Image - pottery barn, via decor8

Getting out of the run-down

I woke this morning feeling listless. Yes, again.

After finding out that something else that came my way did not work out, I got a bit more restless. And then Aru spoke to me by which time i was feeling a little better and then she sent me this link which had this pic that uplifted me totally.

So if you are feeling low / restless / dispirited, head over to Holly's web home to change that. Or else try one of the following

Talk (to a friend / parent / sibling / yourself)
Watch (a movie / birds flying / people walking  / funny video / old photographs)
Play (carroms / with your dog  / board games)
Listen (to the sounds around / music you love / to yourself talking)
Eat
Pray / Meditate
Write
Cook
Shop for less
Scream out loud
Cry and then when you stop, smile
Dance
Buy flowers
Dress sexily

What works for you?

Presenting Vineeta Nair of ArtnLight and her beautiful trays and boxes

Vineeta Nair, is an advertising professional and blogger based out of Mumbai. She has made these absolutely gorgeous trays and boxes. I love the way some of them have an old-world feel, while the others are so trendy. Yet all of them look very international and very chic.

Wouldn't they make fabulous gifts, when you don't want to do the usual clothes / bags / perfume / watch routine? Here's something that is different, pretty and utilitarian...

The pink ornamental design box is one is my favourites. And the Vintage Rose tray with the green handles, (the first image, right on top). Sometimes looking at goodies is enough to brighten my day; i don't have to go shopping.

Looking at these sure have made my day. But if you need to do more than 'look' to make your day - visit Vineeta or email her.

PS: I confess I have already emailed her to find out about one of her pieces that i have not featured here.  It's not for me though, I am trying to get this for the Sunny Side Up office that i am redecorating :) :)

Thank You!

Thank you Prashant and Yaz. Both of you have really really helped. I am trying to find the strength to follow my heart, do a million things, and use that energy. I have become more confident and sure of myself. Trying not to let setbacks set me back. I am trying to write and design - both things that i am extremely passionate about. Thanks again for the encouragement and finding the time to leave me a note. Really appreciate that :)

Thank you :)

Have a bright, cheerful day (even though it is raining outside now)

New beginnings...

Sunny Side Up advertising is moving office and i am doing the interiors. Woo hoo :)

The office is moving from a 2-room independent house to a much larger 3-room independent house. There are 3 rooms, one large living area, a big kitchen and a dining area. So much space, so little time and not much money. All the ingredients for a fun-filled adventure. I am soooo getting hyper. Ideas are running amok. Here's a collage of what it looks like now. I should be done by the end of the month by which time i will post pics of what i made of it.

Wish me luck and pray that neither Raam nor i kill each other by the end of it...

Coincidences...

This morning i woke up feeling a lot better than yesterday. I called up a friend to tell him that i will join him for lunch. Then i got a call from Pallo who wanted to know if i would like to go to bangkok for which i am always game but there are 2 things because of which i can't - money and my passport which is about to expire. Maybe, somewhere in India then, we decided. And i was thinking yesterday that i want to go somewhere... That was Coincidence no.1.

I am comtemplating putting down my papers.
Pallo is quitting her job and has put down her papers.
Another friend N, is thinking on the same lines
Another friend A has also almost done the same thing.
Yet another friend G who had come done to Hyderabad for a flying visit was serving her notice period.

Everyone in my circle of friends is going through the same phase - dissatisfied with our work lives, want to figure out what we want to do further down the line, spend some time with ourselves and do what we like doing. And everyone of these girls are extremely fabulous at what they do and are doing well at their jobs. Isn't it strange that all of us are feeling restless, disoriented, a little unhappy, don't have a POA or a job in our hands and we don't live in the same city (Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad). Stranger still it's happening in the same month. Maybe we are all closer than we think, twined together at some deeper level that we have yet to figure out or is it fate telling us to start something together?

little green things

green things in my home. that add a lot of colour.

What next?

I have been doing a lot of thinking that last few days and i am not getting anywhere. It all started a little while back when i started blogging again. The i-never-have –time to do anything syndrome had to go.
Yes, work is stressful. Yes, i am working all the time. Yes, i do my work with a lot of passion and i am one of the best there is at my workplace. But, i was still not satisfied. There is something about my life that felt incomplete. Like something is missing.
I have been a little restless ever since the day i started blogging again. Because i was doing something i was enjoying, i wanted more enjoyment out of my life.
I know i wanted to have fun. Fun with work, with life, creatively satisfy myself and spend time with family with friends and also travel. To have a fabulous life. And no one is going to do that for me. No one is going to put it all in a platter for me and say, hey here’s a little of this movie-time that you want so much, here’s this time that you can spend painting, here’s the Sunday that you can spend with your family and here’s the little bit of alone time.
I wanted to change my job, because it was really draining me, because no matter how much more effort i put in i was not getting ‘growth’ or at least a change in role. Yes, i was getting awards, being appreciated, but at the end of the day i was also getting bored because i have been doing the same one thing since the last 2 years.
So the first thing i did was to apply for a job at a place i thought i really fitted into. But for the second time i have been rejected. I don’t know why. I am trying to come to terms with it but i am finding it very difficult and i have been listless ever since. I think i am good at my work, have patience, am committed and sincere and extremely hard-working. Then what did the interviewers think of me? Maybe what i am and how i am and how i project myself are two different things.
I am at a cross roads and the big question for me right now is - What should I do ahead in my life? So instead of going ahead arbitrarily and doing things ad hoc without thinking it through, i want to think, mull over, and then move ahead.
I have been trying hard to figure out and i need your help in doing this. I would like my friends, people who know me even a little bit to tell me what they think of me. I really need your inputs right now and request you to spend a few minutes to help me. Be brutal. Because that will be the only way i can grow.
Once you are done reading this, please give me 15 minutes and write down in the comments –
What do you like about me? What do you not like about me? Assets - What do you think i am good at? What am i bad at? Which kind of work am i best suited for?

Would you like to make Oatmeal and Chocolate Chip Cookies?

Here's a recipe for cookies that i found today. I recently baked a chocolate cake and it went well so i have to try cookies now. This recipe looks simple and it's eggless as well. What more could i need? Yes, i am going to make these soon. Feel free to drop by. For a cup of green tea, conversation and some cookies.

2 cups rolled oats 
1 cup unbleached white flour or brown rice flour
3/4 cup shredded coconut
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup toasted walnuts, chopped
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips or raisins

Oven: 350ºF / 180ºC

Combine oats, flour, coconut, cinnamon and salt. In a separate bowl whisk syrup, oil and vanilla. Pour wet ingredients into dry and combine. Fold in nuts and chips/raisins. Press dough together into small balls and place onto parchment-lined cookie sheets. Bake 16 minutes or until lightly browned. 

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip (or raisin) Cookies  By Terry Walters, Clean Food Cookbook 

via 3191 miles apart, Pictures by mav

PS: Can anyone suggest a replacement for maple syrup?

PPS: Their blog is lovely. Stephanie and Mav live 3191 miles apart but stay together on their blog. What a great way to keep in touch!

Staying positive

Something that i wanted really bad. Something that i tried my best at. Something i really needed in my life. It did not happen. I am disappointed. But i hope i will get over it soon. And something better comes along.

Lamp in my living room

I selected 2 lamps on Tuesday, got them home on Friday and got them fixed them on Sunday. That's a quick turn-around time don't you think? The only sad part is they don't glow yet as there is no power supply to the ceiling roses they have been connected to. Hopefully by next Sunday, I will have a pretty glow in my living room.

Making it Lovely

 Paper suitcases from Nicole Balch. Aren't they gorgeous? I found these at her online shop Pink loves Brown. Also found cute pocket mirrors, and some awesome stationery. She is also a DIY and decorating diva of the blog Making it Lovely. Aru showed me her porch that she transformed in 48 hours for a competition. Yes, she won. And yes, my jaw is still on the floor. And yes, it is worth a look.

PS: I like her blog design too...

Baking lessons

Yay! I learnt to bake a cake!! I also learnt to make cookies and muffins. I did not know baking was soooo easy. Or maybe it was easy because of the way it was taught. (I have tried baking a few times, some cakes have been good, others not so great. Generally, i give up because there are too many ingredients and probably all of them are not available at home at that time. Some recipes, I find difficult to try, coz they contain egg, that i don't eat)

So i asked my friend Arundati to teach me coz she bakes cakes like we make tea - without even measuring any ingredients, randomly throwing in all the stuff. Voila! Awesome cake is ready to be eaten.

Arundati readily agreed to teach and conducted her second ever baking class on Saturday. It was at my place with my mom, my SIL and me attending. We had a good time, learnt a lot and realized baking is not really a difficult affair. In fact, it's quite simple. Maybe her classes should be called ABCD. (Arundati's Baking Class 4 Dummies.)

Note: All recipes were eggless, some were made with wheat flour, others used curd!! What more could i want? More cake to eat maybe...

So i baked one last night. It was a super success except maybe i did not have too much cake decoration of my choice left over. But hey, who cares! It tastes great, even though it does not look so great.

The cake is almost over... drop by soon, if you want a piece :) Or i could bake another!

Google Reader

Yes, finally! I have started using Google Reader. Turns out it did not take me more than 5 minutes to figure out. I was procrastinating unnecessarily! Yippee... Now i don't have to keep visiting blogs to see if there are new posts - i just check reader. Like all things Google this application is simple to use and i find it very helpful. Now if only someone out there can help me fix the prblem i am having with my laptop... the keyboard's gone all crazy and it's taking forever to type anything at all...

Check this! Stephen Wiltshire

Can someone take a helicopter ride, see the skyline and sketch it entirely from memory? And can he then draw it to scale?

Stephen Wiltshire is the artist who has drawn the New York skyline to scale entirely from memory after one helicopter ride. He has also sketched the skyline of Tokyo, Rome, Hong Kong, Jerusalem and a few other places. Wow!! My jaw is still somewhere on the floor...

   
(via Joanna Goddard)

Tough two days

You never really know what life is going to throw at you.

Last week was terrible. Two of my colleagues lost people in their family - an aunt and a grandpa and then i lost Bambi. And a few years ago i had also lost a cousin in  the same month, so yes, it's not like my favorite month of the year.

And 2 days back, my mum called to tell me that my cousin is in the hospital. The doctors did not know what it was and her fever just would not go down. Visited the hospital to see her and found her condition to be not good at all. She had dengue and her platelet count was really really low. She needed O minus and no one around had that flowing in their veins. We called around, my uncle and Prashant both found a donor each and got the platelets processed (it costs Rs 10000 - Rs 12000 to get it done and takes about 2 hours for the processing).

Anand also donated O plus to another man whose 2 and a half year old kid had the same problem and needed it. (because i had volunteered and he did not want me to miss my interview that was scheduled early next day.)
.
Eventually came back home at 2 in the morning and slept. Anand at 4. I woke up early (7 is early for me), made breakfast for him and left for the interview. 3 rounds of interviews, good lunch, and i headed to Aru's home.

Spent the day with her talking, she baked a cake like we make chai, we took plenty of pics of the cake, had loads of chai and spent sometime ooh-ing and aah-ing over design blogs. Finally, i left to go shopping. Picked up a clothes rack from Turquoise, curtains from Soma - this was the longest i ever took to select anything, lamps from my uncles store and finally after a long drive through a bad traffic jam, reached home.

Had dinner, painted my toenails black, and went to sleep. Woke up when Anand came home, tried to go back to sleep and i couldn't so logged on the internet, surfed, posted on bixpix, ate karachi biscuits and went to sleep at 2 again. Phew!

Back from Germany

jai came back on sunday from germany.

we got up at 7:30 so we could go to the airport and embarass him.

i picked up roli (for tikka) rice, sweets for him and a packet of sabudana chips for me.

raam and i picked up bagsi and headed to the airport. it was a fine day that was yet to become too hot.

the sparkling new flyover stood shimmering in the morning light, but first we had to pick up a garland for jai.

is the same song playing repeatedly? did bagsi tinker with the player? yeah, we listened to each song more than 3 times.

reached the wrong terminal and then the right one. they saw each other, eyes lit up and then they hugged.

jai had not spotted me or raam until then. in true paparazzi style i appeared, camera in tow, hugged jai and and went click, click, click...

after stowing the luggage carefully in the boot, bagsi picked up the garland, chased jai, raam caught jai and bagsi eventually garlanded him. while she want back to get the tikka thali, jai garlanded the car. phew! men make such a big deal over such small deals.

after a stopover at chutneys for a big raam-size breakfast, we dropped jai and bagsi at their place, and headed home.

except we dint really go home. raam had to check out some prints at  the printers shop so we headed there, sat for about an hour and then finally headed home.