australian food recipes: other blogs

Showing posts with label other blogs. Show all posts

Showing posts with label other blogs. Show all posts

Decor - Eye Candy

I was looking for inspiration for bookshelves and upholstery fabric, online. As usual digressed and chanced upon something beautiful. There are some lovely lovely ideas out there and I fell in love with these. Have been day dreaming and drooling ever since. Sigh!

There is something beautiful and zen like about this room. Elegant. Peaceful. Love the neutral effect, the layout, the decor.

Oh! I love love love this one. For the bookshelf, the colour coordinated arrangement of books, the reading chair, the Ikat cushion, the footstool, the blue pottery scattered throughout the room, the whites, creams and the rug.

And this one for the pink dining chairs and the white kitchen. I love white to the point I am getting a white kitchen, yes in spite of all those concerns of "Indian kitchen and cooking. Are you sure you want white?" Now, if only I was gutsy enough to get chairs in such a colour. Love the elegant look of this one.

All images - Windsor Smith, Room in a Box Do check out her work. It is lovely and inspiring!

Day 19 - My home tour on Magical Homes!!

My ex-apartment in Bangalore was featured on Magical Homes yesterday. The site also has a lot of tips and ideas on all aspects of a home. Makes for an interesting read. Hop over to check it out :) And let me know what you think, by leaving comments there.
This is the 2nd home tour for my rented apartment and Dipika the editor has put together the post so well. Thanks Dipika!!
We spent 2 years there and it was a wonderful stay. I miss my home, my neighbours, my friends from that place and hope to go back there soon.

A cozy corner in my balcony. Books and a cup of tea made it awesome!

The 1st home tour for that apartment is here on The Key Bunch.

With that done, my task list looks much better now -
- Send pics for home tour - Done
- Write article for my first freelance assignment - Done
- Send pics and info for a lifestyle site coming up in Feb 2013 - Done
- Gifts for N's teachers at kindy - Done
- Holiday and Christmas shopping - Done
- Bulk of the packing for N and me - Done
- Donate N's clothes, the ones he has grown out of, to The Salvation Army - TBD
- Last few rounds of laundry and ironing - TBD
- Clear and clean the fridge - TBD

This month has been crazy! I thought it would be the slowest month of the year, relaxed, easy breezy. But instead it has turned out to be the craziest of them all. Started with the blogging marathon and I took it up as a challenge and a way to meet new bloggers. Then came the tug-of-war of going to India vs staying here. That ~~was~~ is mental torture. And all of a sudden I had these 2 requests for pictures and an article to be written! Plus all the stuff for the holiday - shopping, packing. Phew! I am so looking forward to the holiday.

What are you planning to do on New Years? Where will you be? At home with loved ones? With extended family? Out of town? Partying somewhere? Watching TV?

This post is part of the Marathon Blogging December 2012.

My 2nd guest post at ShopHealthy.in

Here is the 2nd guest post I wrote for ShopHealthy.in's blog - 5+ A Day.
The 1st one was a recipe for Oatmeal and walnut cookies - mentioned here. This new post is about getting 5+ servings of fruits and veggies in your daily diet and using all the food colour groups!

I love colour in all aspects of life, except my wardrobe maybe... that has a lot of black, which I am desperately trying to change. Uh, well digressing aren't we? Let's get back to the point. I believe food should also be visually appealing to tickle those taste buds and get all the senses activated! Food well presented beckons to me, in a way I know and love.

So go on read the post and incorporate some colour into your meals!!
Leaving you with this vivid image of simple yet very flavorful ingredients for a quick pasta meal which covers 3 of your colour segments :)

Featured on Prismma - the design and decor magazine

Yay! Moi is very happy :)
Prismma is a design and decor magazine. It has 3 formats - a magazine, website and news blog. They have some beautiful home tours, decor tips and blogger show cases too.

My entry for Vignettes and Tablescapes was chosen and featured in one of their articles - here.
Go on, check it out.

New header image

I wanted to change the blog header image. I picked these elephants up at the Dastkar Bazaar last weekend. And they seemed just perfect for a header image along with my mother's green saree as a backdrop!

Though I wish I could do something smaller for a header image. I love Anu's header over at My Dream Canvas and have always wanted to mimic hers. But that just doesn't happen in spite of efforts on Piknik :(

I'll leave you with another glimpse of my new elephant pair.

More about these beauties and my other picks in another post.

Its raining awards!

Rema and Emreen passed on these lovely awards to me!!

Thank you ladies!! You absolutely made my day :)

The rules of the award are

Accept, and post them on your blog with the link to the person who gave it to u.
Pass it to other blogger friends to keep the ball rolling.
Let the nominated person know about his/her award.

I would like to pass on these awards to these lovely and talented bloggers whose blogs are on my must-read-regularly list!!

Sharon and Rekha of The Key Bunch

Sharkara of Sensitive Creations

Prachi of Purple Homes

Gagan of Of Peacocks and Paisleys

Sarika of Kraftaria

Brinda of Diaper Dreamz

Shruti of Mindful Meanderings

Please ignore if yours is a award-free blog. Happy blogging!!

Versatile Blogger Award!!

Yay!! Patty from Colours Dekor passed on "The Versatile Blogger" Award to me. I am so happy :) Thank you so much Patty!
Rules of this award are -

Thank the person who awarded you & link back to them in your post.
Tell 7 random facts about yourself.
Pass the award on to 15 new found bloggers.
Contact each blogger you want to pass this award on to and let them know you’ve done so.

Here are 7 random facts about me -

I love peanuts and anything with them - peanut chutney being my favourite.
I love soda when the fizz has gone out! (I know what's the point of soda then, but that's the way I like it)
Cadbury's Roast Almond chocolate... is my all time favourite . It works as the perfect bribe if someone wants something from me.
I don't like lizards... have a nagging fear that one will drop on me.
I make lists - in my head, on paper. But not just that I make rough drafts of lists and then fair ones (I know, my friends laugh at me for that, you can do that too!)
I cannot do just one thing at a time - the TV has to be on, the laptop open and a book too! Or the phone will do.
I bite my nails when I am tense or excited (like in the cricket world cup finals).

Now comes the tough part, passing the award on to 15 new bloggers. I am a new blogger myself and am still getting to know other fellow bloggers. So I think I shall skip the passing part this time. I don't intend to be selfish or greedy by keeping the award all to myself. Just that it won't be fair if I pass the award on without knowing other bloggers.

Happy Wednesday!! Its mid week already!! Yay!!

Tea time!

Rajee Sood over at Styling & Design with Rajee Sood is having an online tea party!
Considering she is one of my favourite design bloggers I had to participate.

Lets peep into the bright and cozy nook in my balcony. How about sitting here to have a nice cup of tea?

Reminds me of a nice, pleasant and a li'l lazy spring day!

Some of my favourite springy sweet pea hand lotion and Good Earth whole wheat methi crackers. The cushions also remind me of spring. Cushions courtesy The Red River.

And a light and funny book to go along a cup of tea. What more could I ask for?

I am also sending this favourite recipe of mine for banana walnut muffins to go along with a cup of tea.
Enjoy!
Its mid-week already. Yay!

Update - I just realized that another of my favourite blogs The Key Bunch is having a Spring Summer Fest Carnival. So I am going to link this up there too! :)

Check out my home tour on The Key Bunch

My apartment has been featured on The Key Bunch!

Thanks to Sharon and Rekha for showcasing it so beautifully and to all the readers for dropping by the blog, commenting and following!!

Featured on The Birthday Blog...

Yay!!!
N's 2nd birthday celebrations have been showcased on the birthday blog!
Go check it out here.

Before and After - Master bedroom wall art

This weekend was fun fun and busy - I had a potluck lunch with friends which had super yummy food. Potlucks are great coz you get to eat a variety and learn new recipes. S and I got to meet some very dear friends who have twin boys about N's age. One of the twins has the same name as N! :)
Watched some World Cup matches, relaxed, lazed out and then - to balance all the happiness - came some bad news :( I came down with a severe bad throat and congestion. All the fun n frolic and carelessness (on my part) resulted in a very bad congestion, infection and fever. Ended up going to the doctor and am on antibiotics now. But before all this happened I took some pictures of my bedroom wall which was long due.

This is how our master bedroom wall deco looked like, till some time back. We had a single framed wall art. It has been made by Sarika of Kraftaria. I bought this at the Diwali Mela in our apartment complex. I love the wall art but the wall just looked empty!

Then I had this brainwave of adding more such framed wall arts to make a set. So I met Sarika and requested her to make 3 more. Voila!! This is how the wall looks now.

I know the blue one is slightly off level, need to fix that as soon as I am up and running.
But look at each of these quilled wall arts - they are so delicate and beautiful!

I wish I could paint the wall behind. But since its a rental apartment I don't have that option now. I surprised S by putting these up and he loved the art.
Hop on over to Sarika's blog Kraftaria and check out all the other stuff she has made. It is beautiful and innovative!

I am linking this to Patty's Weekend Wrap up 21!

Yay! I won a book!

Kiran over at thirtysixandcounting has a contest and a book to giveaway!! Check it out here.
She is giving away the book "Chanakya's Chant" by Ashwin Sanghi. Its his 2nd book after The Rozabal Line. Read the review on her blog.
All you have to do is send in your favourite Chanakya quotes and the ones that she likes will win a copy of the book. So hurry guys, there is only a total of 10 copies to be given away!

I have already won my copy. Yay!!

Here are my top 2 Chanakya quotes -
1) “There is some self-interest behind every friendship. There is no friendship without self-interests. This is a bitter truth.” – One might say no this ain’t true for all my friends but look at it this way – we like being with our best/good friends 'coz they make us happy and feel good about ourselves! The feel-good factor is a self interest too.
2) "Before you start some work, always ask yourself three questions – Why am I doing it, What the results might be and Will I be successful. Only when you think deeply and find satisfactory answers to these questions, go ahead.” – I for one, need to practise this before I put my hands into anything new.

I am excited and eagerly awaiting my copy :)
Thanks Kiran!

Blogger Meet!

I had my first ever blogger meet this weekend and it was fun!!
4 of us - Arundhati of Arundhati's blog, Sarika of Kraftaria and other blogs, Shruti of Mindfull Meanderings and I got together on Saturday at Arundhati's place.
What followed was lots of talking, fun and food in a warm, friendly atmosphere! It felt as if we knew each other pretty well through our blogs. The food spread was great and we plan to have more of these get-togethers in the future.
Here are some pictures from our party -

From L to R: Arundhati, Sarika, Shruti

From L to R: Me, Sarika, Arundhati

And I also got my Madhubani kite bookmarks which I won at Shruti's 100 followers giveaway! Here are my very own bookmarks in the pretty bag. Loved them Shruti!! Thanks!! :)

The fish one is my favourite!

Update - I am linking this to Patty's Weekend Wrap Up 18.

Giveaway at P&P and sales all around

Hello folks!
Happy Friday - seriously I LOVE Fridays!! :) They make me happy and excited.
So here's to make you feel better too - Gagan at Of peacocks and paisleys is hosting a giveaway. CSN stores will give away a $45 gift card, which can be used anywhere on their site, in any of their 200+ stores. The giveaway is open to U.S./Canadian residents. Residents of other continents may still enter for a loved one in the U.S./Canada.
This giveaway is only open a week so hurry up now and hop on to her blog.

And for folks in India - Crossword bookstores start their Clearance sale today. They will have up to 80% off so lets go book shopping.

Have a great weekend!!

Weekend Wrap Up

This weekend was my first at home in the New Year and after my vacation. So it was all about sorting, cleaning and organizing. I also gave my house the what-does-it-need look and I noticed that I need to add more masks to my collection.
I recently started collecting masks - fascinated by the variety of art forms and cultural influences in masks and inspired by some fellow bloggers. I already have 3 in my collection, they are on different walls right now, but I plan to put them up on one wall when the collection grows bigger.

My existing collection -
The one on the left is from Indonesia. It is a wooden mask and is etched and painted. The black one on the right is a Bastar tribal handicraft from Chhattisgarh. It is wrought iron painted black.
S and N even have names for these - The wooden one is "Samba uncle" and the black one is "Basanti aunty" (aunty because she wears earrings).

And my latest addition is this pair from Arunachal Pradesh. These are hand carved wooden masks. They are supposed to be Samba uncle and Basanti aunty's babies. Their names are Kalia and Bhedia - don't ask me why! I wasn't part of the christening ceremony.

This time on vacation one of my aunts - a very smart, independent and loving person and a favourite of mine had us over for lunch. I saw these masks at her place and these or something similar are next on my list!

Love the golden yellow bronzish finish on these ganesha masks/wall hangings. And the terracotta ones below are eye catching too!

We also started hunting for console tables. More on that later!! Happy Monday!!

This is my entry to Patty's Weekend Wrap Up 14! Check out what other people were doing over the weekend!

N's bookshelf on papertigers blog

I had recently blogged about the "Around the world in 100 bookshelves" project at the papertigers blog.
N's bookshelf is featured on the papertigers blog - click here to see it!

N's bookshelf

Have you heard about the "Around the World in 100 bookshelves" project at the Papertigers blog? If not take a look at the link above. It is a great way to join the world through books!

This is N's section on our book shelf below - considering he is 2 years old we think this is a good beginning :)
N loves books - thanks to a book lover mom. She is always on the look out for more books coz she gets bored of reading them over and over again.
The dad doesn't touch books or reading material except the daily newspaper. But he does read out to N and makes up bedtime stories for him :)

Artsy-Craftsy-September 2010

The theme for the Artsy-Craftsy-September 2010 hosted by Shruti of Mindful Meanderings is "Celebrations and Decorations".

I happen to have just the perfect entry for it right here.
These are the "star" centerpieces I made for N's 1st birthday party.

Lady like.... maybe not!

I am a fairly new blogger and so when Arundhati of Arundhati's blog tagged me it took me some time to figure out what that meant. So I visited IHM's blog who initiated the tag and gained more gyaan about the tagging business. This tag is called 'My sins against gender-stereotypes'.

I loved both their posts - Arundhati's and IHM's!

My first tag and here is my list -

1. I have a very visible tattoo on my left shoulder - much to the chagrin of orthodox and conservative family walas both mine and the in-laws.

2. I chose whom I wanted to marry and have no regrets about that- defied a couple of social norms and ended up creating a big drama too!

3. I love cameras and taking pictures - much more than my ~~better~~ other half!

4. I like driving and am confident about driving on Indian roads. Driving makes me feel in control of my life!

5. I DON'T like chick flicks or mush mush movies. I would rather watch a "Dark Knight" or a "Shawshank Redemption" than a "Pretty Woman".

6. I can cook for survival BUT beyond that its a pain. I am not a fan of cooking everyday & every meal, but love doing it once in a while and for parties.

7. I like my financial independence and love working - am on a break right now.

8. I have tried all possible kinds of alcoholic beverages and love my poisons - vodka and rum. I am more of a rum and coke person than a wine lady!

9. I have trekked mountains and rappelled down them with great ease; to the surprise of my male counterparts.

10. I like taking charge and getting things done quick - don't have patience for the slow & lazy race of human beings.

11. I have travelled across 3 continents by myself. Taken a 3 day train journey sitting on suitcases and bags with 27 boys and no girl. Taken a 1 & 1/2 year old on a 14 hour flight and survived it.

12. I have a great sense of direction and a pictographic memory when it comes to roads - that combined with my driving can take me to places I have been to years ago just based on my memory map.

There is girly stuff that I love - maybe I should write another blog for that. OR wait for someone to start a tag about girly stuff that we do :)

And since I am relatively new to the blogging world so can't tag people yet. But I don't mind the blue pants curse - I can add that to this list!

Guilty or not?

It all started with my husband's aunt asking me about my 21 month old son N - "You haven't trained him to go poo poo in the pot yet??"
I started thinking of all possible answers and excuses.

"He isn't ready yet" ~ aka I am not ready to clean up all the messes he shall make.
"He just doesn't do it on the pot" ~ aka I don't have the patience to sing songs and clap and dance to entertain him while he sits on the pot.
"What if he poops on the cream coloured couch or the bed?" ~ aka I cannot watch him continuously for signs of going poo poo.

I felt so guilty of not being the "ideal mom" whose kids are potty trained as soon as they hold their first bottles. It was all my fault!
I should have started taking N to the bathroom every 20 minutes when he was a month old. That would have helped. Or I should have brought one of those poo poo song cds or dvds to motivate him into sitting on the pot for some time. Or maybe I should have rewarded him with candy and let him flush every time he used the pot.

The more I thought about it the more it stressed me out. After deeper introspection (read surfing the net and self assurance) I concluded that every kid has a different pace of doing things (I know we all know that). And so DOES every mom. I don't need to attempt to be a "super-mom" always.
A couple of years down the line I don't want to remember this phase of life for all the mood swings and power struggles I had with N. I want to remember them for the small joys, the role play games and the cuddling together. And that will happen only if both of us are happy with each other.

The world shall not come crashing down if he wears diapers for a few more months.
So now if someone asks me Why is my 21 months old son still in his diapers? The answer would be "Because I am not ready!" And I shall not feel guilty about that.

This post is my entry to "The Women's web 'Mommy Guilt' contest". Click on this link to see their article 'Fight that Mommy Guilt'.