The gift

Pretty bag from Melissa Beth

A very cool laptop sleeve for my very cool macbook pro, all the way from the USA. Water and stain repellant for a careless material girl. 

A holiday, shopping spree and a useful gift... what more could a girl ask for.

I got many more gifts but unfortunately have not been able to take pictures yet... those will come in February when i return from Kushlayatan, Nal, Bikaner. Yes, another holiday. Of a different kind.

Hampi Birthday

Hampi

I love to travel and what better way than to ring in my birthday than to go on a trip. We drove down 400 kms to Hampi. 3 from Hyderabad and 4 from Bangalore. We had an awesome time - seeing, shooting, talking, laughing and eating. 

You can see more pics here.


Title of the post borrowed from N's Hampi Album

Power Packed Breakfast - Pesarattu and Coconut Chutney

Pesarattu Chutney Breakfast

We made Pesarattu and Coconut chutney for breakfast. Pesarattu is protein packed and very simple to make. You can have it for breakfast or make it as a tea-time snack or eat it whenever you are hungry. Skip the oil if you are on a diet. Pesarattu and tomato pickle is a lip-smacking combi.

I am a big fan of all kinds of dosas whether made of rice and white lentil (urad dal) or just any Gram, either of one kind or a mix of whatever is available at home.

For Pesarattu / Childa: Soak 1 cup whole Green Gram in water and leave it overnight. Grind it with 1 Green Chilli and a ½” piece of Ginger. Add water while grinding. It should be a smooth paste, not very watery or too thick. Add salt to taste. Spread on the tawa, add a few drops of oil and you are done. You can place some chopped onions or grated cottage cheese on the Pesarattu while it is still on the griddle, fold and serve.

For the Coconut Chutney: Chop ½ a Coconut into medium sized pieces. To it add 2 cloves of Garlic and 4 Curry leaves that have been fried in 1 Tsp oil, a small piece of Tamarind, 3 Tbsp of fried Bengal Gram, Salt, ½ a cup of Coriander leaves, Water and Salt. Grind it and your chutney is ready.

Apples and Blackberries, Going Bad to Verse

The BlackBerry Curve in my hand,

A Bluetooth handsfree of the Jabra brand,

Both are lovely, my magic wands

An apple finally, a MacbBook Pro,

I am in love, so I preen and crow

My eyes shiny and face all aglow

The software, I greedily bawled

It's all been speedily installed

Oh my my, I am so enthralled.

A lil multi card reader I got

Now I dont have to carry wires a-lot

For a hundred bucks, it's a buy super-hot.

My brother in law sweet and wise

Gifted an external hard desk device

Now I backup all my pix in a trice

To stay connected, I just plug n play

If you’d like to surf the Internet, my way

Get it from the Tatas, I say

I know, I know, you are looking at me with woe

Or itching to, in the lake, throw

What to do, I am glad and just want to crow!

(I only need a multiple USB connector and God, please help me find my pen drive.)

A New Bottle

I love painted bottles. N has plenty of them at her home that she and her mum have hand painted. I have seen a striped beauty at a cousin’s place that she painted when she was bored. Both my friends A and B have a few. A few with traditional Indian motifs, and a few others completely contemporary.

One - The green bottle was gifted to me by A and occupies centre stage at home. She had got them painted by an artist from Bangalore and I love the way the lily has been painted.

Two – Bottles used as candleholders. How lovely. I mean some of us cant paint or are just plain lazy but all the effort that you need to put in is to find the right bottles and candles.
(I checked again and it's not really that simple. You have to cut the bottles!! Oops!! But maybe we can find things other than wine bottles or find someone who can cut it for us)

Three – Glass bottles used to hold flowers. Cute. Easily doable and am seriously contemplating doing something like this at home or outside my house with a money plant growing in it. What say A, should we?

Four – Grey and white. Classic.

Five – Raffia wrapped on a bottle. Awesome way to bring colour in. Not expensive to do and does not require too many  purchases. Just glue, twine and patience.

Six – Similar to what I saw at N’s place. Love the one with the daisies.

If you had time to spare which one would you attempt and if you do end up uncorking your creativity, I would love to see what you managed to do.

Khichdi banaya - Pongal & Coconut Chutney for Breakfast

pic via TamilSpider

On Sundays breakfast is a delayed affair. This morning I  got up late and when the hunger pangs became too much to ignore, quickly made Pongal and Coconut chutney coz it’s quick, easy, nutritious and yummy!  And before I could take a picture, it got all over, hence i had to surf and post a pic thats not mine.  


Pongal's a festival dish but made all around the year too…

You need: 2 tbsp Ghee, 15 pcs of Cashew nuts, 3 Green Chillies, a handful of Curry Leaves, ½ tsp Cumin Seeds, 1/4 tsp Turmeric, 10-12 Pepper corns, a little asafetida, Salt to taste, 1 cup Rice, ½ cup Mung Bean, 2 ½ cup Water

Cooking it: Heat the ghee in the pressure cooker, add the cumin and cashew nuts, when they begin to brown, add the peppercorn, curry leaves, green chillies and asafoetida. Add the Mung Bean, Rice, turmeric, Salt and Water. Cook till you hear 2 whistles. Let it stand for a few minutes and then serve hot with coconut chutney.

Awesome Ikat

Ikat – a traditional weaving technique which requires that the yarn is pre-dyed according to the pattern and then woven. Just imagine how complicated that could be? Now multiply by atleast a million. Seriously.

I visited a master weavers home for a project I am working on and saw these lovelies. These are commonly known as pochampally saris coz they are woven in a place called pochampally. For more gyan you can click here and here.

In the shopping bag: A mangalgiri cotton sari from him for Rs 750 and kalamkari blouse material for Rs 150 from Nalli’s. Will post the pictures later, once it is all ready to wear. 

Ikat is quite fashionable right now and can be seen on the ramp pretty often. I had picked up a really smart top in various hues of pink from Westside sometime last year. It's quite easy to find!

via RunwayDaily

High Five to High Fashion

via What's Up

I studied fashion but never got to pursue it as a career. Do I regret it? There are days when I wish I had tried a bit more. But mostly, I don’t mind it. And then there are times when I come across something totally awesome and just cant stop drooling.

Aren’t these shots something? The designs, the styling, the make up… I am totally loving it!

I did not shop today, but picked up a kurta that I had given to my tailor for stitching. So I do have an addition to my wardrobe.

PS: Isn't the grey skirt in the first pic awesome?

Designer Cycles

via ifitshipitshere

Would you like to ride one of these? I heart all of them… 

Did i go shopping? Looks like not a day goes by without a shopping trip. I went to LifeStyle and helped my friend pick up goodies for his sister, who is my friend. We picked up an old rose corduroy jacket and lots of eye make up from the Chambor counter. No pictures… but maybe Beatrix can take one and email me!

Cube-d

I was to meet a friend for lunch and wanted to get a small gift for him. D3, a store at Jubilee Hills has almost always come to my rescue. If I don’t know what to buy, I almost always head there. For my dad’s 60^th birthday, at the last minute, a few hours to the party, I decided I wanted to get return gifts. So I headed to D3 and picked up shot glass sets. This time around too, I dropped by and got gifts for 2 friends who have come visiting from phoren shores – US and Australia.

D-cube stocks goodies from a lot of different brands – Mukul Goyal, Happily Unmarried, Chumbak and others.

I got: Beer glasses, coasters with beautiful calligraphic print in hindi for K which I could not take a picture of and a coconut shell zip bag, paper roll square container, small note book for the other K

Cost: Don’t remember each item specifically but about Rs 1300 for it all.

Purchased at: D-cube

Other purchases that day: Jabra handsfree, coz I have paid fines and buttered enough for talking on the mobile while driving!

Shilparamam Again!

Anyone can drag me to Shilparamam. Anytime. Actually, anyone can take me to any shop any time after the magic word ‘shopping’ is uttered! So of we went to Shilparamam – Kiran, Ashreya, Vinnie . ON my 4^th or was it 5^th visit this year… I picked up a mustard and yellow cotton suit, two necklaces, a set of bangles and a multicolored stole.

Cost: Maheshwari Cotton Suit – Rs 450, Necklace multi colored – Rs 120, LongGold Bead Necklace – Rs 200, Bangles – Rs 100, Stole – Rs 170

Purchased at: Shilparamam

Other purchases: None!! J

Bookworm

It’s my papa’s birthday tomorrow and I am completely clueless about what to get for him… Abba!! Books are my solution always but my pa is not much of a book person. So off I went to Shoppers Stop and spent some time without any brainwaves. Finally, picked up Randy Pausch’s The Last Lecture – apparently, it’s fab. And a book of SudoKu, since he is quite addicted to it! The only other purchase was Osho’s Joking Around for myself.

Cost: Rs 1240

Purchased at: Crossword

Other purchases: None!! J

I heart Wundershop

I was looking at some pictures I had clicked sometime last month and these just jumped out and said they needed to be on my blog.

Kedar, is a classmate and friend from fashion school and he has a little shop on Banjara Hills called Wundershop. Quirky, fun, colourful and sexy  - the store and the fashion that’s retailed there.  He has been featured in a lot of magazines both homegrown and national and is an incredibly talented person. I had visited him a few years ago and again last month and fell in love all over again. 

New Year. New Buys

Cross a skirt with pants and you get a zouaf. They are known by various names including Alibaba or Alladin or Genie pants. I love them for the extreme comfort they offer and when i saw this multi colored beauty on my visit to Shilparamam on New Year's Day, I could not resist. Aren't they instant cheer me ups?  Since they are so colorful, I teamed it with a simple black Gap tee, a black stole and a black lightweight shrug.  In summer, i can ditch the jeans and wear it with a singlet... Yay!!

Cost: Rs 200

Purchased at: Shilparamam

Other purchases: A multicolored striped cotton jhola for Rs 150

Army men wore it. We can too to fight our daily battles!