Happy Birthday Month!!!

 August is my birthday month... the month of the Lion... the Lioness!! I love the big cat more than anything and I'm a super proud Leo... !!!

This post is a tribute to the big cat as well as the small!!!

look at those eyes... you just wanna hug him!!!

majestic!

Now why can't i have a pet like this?

Satisfied!

Babies!!!

awwwwww....

some more awwwwww!!!

one two many?!!!!

love this!

Oh My God cute!!!

yaawwnnnnn!

contemplating!

aaaccckk!!!!

who's going where??!

Peek-a - boo!

yoga!!!

That's actually the most like me... try giving me ribbons you'll see the exact same expression!!!

boxing champ!!

this is like me too!!!!!

love her expression!!!

he ha ha ha ha ha!!!

You turned your head didn't you??!!!

Love!

How graceful!!!!

The Cat.... you can't help but love us!!

all images via my Pinterest account!! go have a look!

Saturday Recipes!!!

As a tribute to Master chef Season three i made enchiladas! And they turned out super yum!!! 

Best part was how easy it was to make....

So i started off with with the Rajma.  

You need to soak it the night before so that its easier to cook. Add some tasty home made garam masala and one cut up tomato to the rajma and put it into the pressure cooker. About three whistles and you should be done. 

In a fairly big utensil add some ghee. Once its hot put in two pureed onions. Let this cook for a while, but keep stirring so it doesn't stick to the base. Now add some more garam masala just a quarter tea spoon. Put in the rajma from the cooker. Smash it with the back of a wooden spoon so that you're not left with full rajma beans. Add red chilli powder, a quarter spoon more of garam masala and salt and pepper. mix it up real nice. Add water occasionally depending on how thick or thin you want it. Its better if its a little thick for the enchiladas. 

Next cut up a few vegetables. I used

Tomatoes

Spring onions

Cabbage

Lightly stir fried mushrooms

Capsicum

Then you need two sauces. A sour cream and a red chilli sauce. 

Open up on packet of tomato puree into a pan. Add some red chilli powder, salt and sugar (since the puree can be a bit sour). Bring it to one boil and its ready. 

Sour cream is easy too. Just mix some cream off your milk and add milk to it and keep stirring. But stop once you feel the consistency is good or else it could turn into white butter!! Put this in the fridge till you're ready to plate up.

Last thing are the rotis. Make plain flour or maida rotis. And make them nice and big. so that everything fits. 

Now the fun part! put your rotis in separate plates. Add all the ingredients into the center. Starting with the rajma then the vegetables, topped with both the sauces. Fold the rotis and put in toothpicks to hold it better. Now sprinkle some grated cheese or better place two slices of cheese on top,avoid the toothpick area!! put lots more sauces on top till the rotis seem soaked in it, or else the enchiladas will be dry. 

Now this next step is a bit of cheating on my part! I don't have an oven so i simply placed each plate in the microwave for about 3 minutes or till the cheese melted. and Ta-da! same effect!! 

Two for the husband one for mommy one for me!

Doesn't that look good!!

Hope Master chef inspires me like this everyday!!!!

Real Weddings..... My Weddings Part One!

I had planned Fridays to be a real weddings day. Where i find some of the best weddings online or of friends and put them up. And I was online for hours but nothing jumped at me for that First blog of Real weddings.

I wanted an Indian wedding, that i was sure of. But most of the Indian weddings i found online were either in the US or the UK. I wanted it more Indian, right here in India!

I also wanted a very personal wedding. Something done by hand, where every little thing was made and planned by the bride and groom.

I also wanted the wedding to have a very vintage, very royal feel to it....

So finally, I decided on my own wedding!!

It took place in Jaipur, Rajasthan (can't get more Indian than that!!). It was completely designed and planned by me! with lots of my Mum's help. And i have given a beautiful vintage feel to all the images!!!

We started off by designing and hand making the invites. My Mum's an artist, and my favorite of her works is her lotus motif. From day one i knew that that is what i wanted on my card. And of course her calligraphy with which she wrote my and the husbands name.

front

Since we had three major occasions we designed three leaflets, also hand drawn then printed, by Mum. We picked really fun bright colors as we didn't want to use any traditional red and gold for the wedding. Everything had to be super colorful and fun!! 

She even wrote little notes, more like poems for each occasion. I'll post those soon!

back

We tied a little RSVP note and a personal note to each friend and family and wrapped the card with it. 

Then off to Jaipur it was! I went about four days prior to the date of the wedding to finish all the last minute detailing with the wedding decorater. everything was planned by Mum and me and just put into place by them. But once the festivities started i completely backed off from the planning and just sat back and enjoyed my wedding!!!

So it started with my mehendi on the first day. 

Isn't that just gorgeous!!! I love it!

This is during the Ganesh Puja. That's a ceremony we have before you start anything new. 

The Haldi Ceremony. Where all the women of the house apply a paste of turmeric on the brides feet, hands and face to make her glow during her wedding!!! It was such fun. That's my cousin sister, we are just 12 days apart in age. Since we were kids our mothers would dress us up in similar clothes and we just continued that tradition!!!!

Four generations!!! Starts off with my mum's mum on the left, then me, then my dad's mum, then my mum.

Am i glowing yet??!!!!!

This was the Sangeet/Cocktail night! My favorite outfit ever!!!! And even the husband looked dashing don't you think!!!! I love how he added the green necklace to match my outfit!!

The Bridal party full of all the people who mean the world to me!!!!

The crazy dancing lasted all night!!! My brother in law in the black was the star of the night!!

The panels with lotuses in the back are painted by Mommy dearest as well as the panel on the right, she wrote the poem that my husband had once written for me. 

Hope you enjoyed the first series of my wedding! coming up are two wedding ceremonies! 

Photogrpaher: Anwesha Mandal

Venue: Mehendi, Haldi and Ganesh Puja at Chirmi Palace, Jaipur

           Sangeet at Heavens Garden Jaipur

Catering: Local caterers

Decoraters: Harshwardhan

Design and styling of wedding: Me and Mum!

Invites: Mum!

Wednesday Photos

So i went thru my blog the other day and realized that its super erratic!!! Diy's and random notes about things.... so I have decided I'm going to be a bit more organised!!! Me organised... lets see how long that lasts!!!

So starting today every Wednesday I'm going to put up one great photograph. Something i found madly exciting or just so damn pretty i had to share it!

This picture is just one of the happiest pictures i have ever seen.... unfortunately i don't have the link from where it came... but i found it on the ever fun Pinterest.

Now isn't everything about this just so fun?!! the colors, the set up, the lighting.... makes me want to just jump with joy!!! or maybe fly away!! like in UP... the film... 

Whats even more special about this picture is that i love the way they shot it... the old architecture in the background with her vintage lace dress contrasted with fun colored balloons.... The fact that you can't see her expression but you just know she's grinning from ear to ear.... 

I want to feel like this... light and weightless... :)