Giving Thanks!!

I know it's Thanksgiving and most of you must be celebrating it with your families,loved ones and friends....

Being away from home I do miss my family and my friends back in India but over the past 2 years I've made a family of my on here.. with some lovely friends and cousins who might live a miles away but are still connected!!

This Thanksgiving we are celebrating with my sister (cousin) (Nidhi and Munish Jiju).. who just moved to the west coast and I couldn't have been happier as she is just 5 hrs away from us and we can visit them whenever we want to.. Play with my niece and nephew (Rohan and Disha) whom I love and miss dearly!!!

But before we start the celebrations and eating huge amounts of food... Me and Hubby decided to do this post together by being thankful for a number of things this year :

Life:

• Starting the year celebrating with family.
• An amazing trip to Mexico (celebrating our First Anniversary)
• At least one of us was able to visit India and be with our family.
• My first solo art exhibition.
• Opportunity to learn yoga from Mrs. Priya giving me a new insight in life.
• A new car.
• A short but sweet visit from Dad.
• Brother spending his summer with us.

• A cross country road trip to Seattle with brothers (Sukrit and Ketan) in the new car to visit cousins (Sidhant and Maneet)
• A visit from our cousin (Roohi di) from Singapore and a fun trip to Vegas.

• Our wonderful friends (Yuthika and Barun) for being there for us always.

• Making our Diwali celebrations the most memorable one We would like to thank.. Priyank, Nisha, Ajay. Sneha, Yuthika, Barun and our cute lil Shubham

• We would like to thank Arthur Murray Studios for introducing us to one of the most fun hobbies: Ballroom dancing.

Technology:

• We are most thankful for tablets and smart phones which our parents have finally adapted to...
• For skype so that we can connect to our family everyday.
• For whatsapp which made messaging and sharing pics with our family and friends sooooo much easier.
• For Instagram which gave me new wings to show my photography talent and make new friends.
• For the blogging world for keeping me up to date with the fashion world and giving me a new platform to share my thoughts with the world and for helping me meet like minded people I can connect to and for the amazing friendships.
• For Google making the world searchable, accessible or Googlable.
• For Youtube for making POP pilates, yoga videos and all kinds of workouts available at the comfort of your home.
• For Netflix for hours and hours of in home entertainment.
• For Pinterest giving us access and ideas for absolutely anything.
• For Groupon that saved us money and introduced us to Ball Room Dancing, Yoga classes, Paint Ball, Trampoline arenas and lots and lots of yummy places to have gourmet food.       
• Birtchbox for sending me samples of brands I would have never heard off let alone trying.

And the last but the most important...

Family:

• We are thankful to our parents for giving us a good education and helping us become who we are today. 
• For being a strong support our entire life and source of inspiration and motivation. 
• For providing for us and teaching us valuable lessons for life. 
• We are thankful to our brothers for being our best friends even though we sometimes ignore their advise ;) (e.g. getting my hair cut. Sorry Suki ;)).
• We are thankful to our grandparents for teaching us some useful skills such as knitting and for all the 'masalas', 'chutneys' and all kinds of yummy stuff.

Thank you God for a beautiful home, a wonderful family, amazing friends and filling our lives with laughter and happiness. This is all one could ever ask for....

What are you thankful for today... ??? !!!

Recipe time : Healthy Pumpkin Cookies

It's Pumpkin season people.. and everyone wants to have all kinds of "pumpkiny" things.. from pumpkin spiced lattes to pies and bread or even cookies.. but they are laden with calories and fat and can throw you off our diet and keep you feeling guilty..
So I went online in search of some healthy options for my pumpkin fix and found this recipe and thought I should share it with you guys!!

Here it goes..


The "42 calorie" Pumpkin cookies.. or more like cake bites... you'll love them!!

Prep Time : 5 mins
Cook Time : 15-18 mins
Makes : 32 cookies

Ingredients :

1 cup        Whole wheat flour
1 cup         All purpose flour
1 cup         White sugar
1 cup         Canned pumpkin puree (not pie mix)
1 tsp          Baking powder
1 tsp          Baking soda
2 tsp          Pumpkin pie spice ( I did not have it so I added a tsp of cinnamon and cardamom powder)
1/8 tsp       Sea salt
1/2 cup      Unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp          Vanilla or Almond extract
                 Coking spray


Method :

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Grease cookie sheer with spray
Cream sugar, applesauce, pumpkin puree and extract together.
In another bowl mix flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt and pumpkin spice.
Mix the wet and dry ingredients together.
Form little blobs with a spoon or if you prefer using hands make sure you wet them a little with cold water so that the prepare mix does not stick to your hands and you can shape your cookies well
Bake for 15 - 18 minutes, until browned.

Enjoy them with coffee or tea.. or even with ice cream!!

You can add chocolate chips to it.. but it will increase your calorie intake..

Tell me how you liked them... You can make them for the kids at your Thanksgiving dinner... :) :)

Book Review 9 : The Fourth Estate

Book Review for November

Title : The Fourth Estate
Author : Jeffrey Archer
Published by : Harper Collins
Type : Political
Genre : Fiction
Pages : 549

My Rating : ***


My Review

Story Baseline : Two strong characters coming from totally different backgrounds, battling to gain power and willing to take endless risks...

The novel is about 2 ferocious publishers- Keith Townsend and Richard/ Dick Armstrong. Both the characters come from different backgrounds.. One is born in a well to do family with all the luxuries and facilities and the other is  a World War II survivor.. has seen the most difficult of times.. have been chased, put into jail.. have gone days starving and hiding from the enemy.. seen people die in front of him..

Both of them try to take over the media world by different means.. fair or unfair.. Only keeping the eye on the outcome.. no matter who gets hurt, with no regard of anyone and how it may affect the people around them..

It's a political drama where one tries to overstep and kill the other's effort and gain total control.
The book was long and it took me nearly one and a half month to complete. I thought of giving it up a number of times but the author does narrate the story in a way that you actually get a little hooked and wanna know what will happen next..

I felt as if the book could have been a little more precise rather than stating every detail.. somethings could have been left to imagination.. Plus I did not find the ending very good.. with Armstrong taking his own life.. as he had been portrayed as such a strong character moving forward through every kind of hurdle and difficulty..

There is no doubt the Jeffrey Archer writes really well and you do get hooked to his novels..


Linking up with BBC2012 at the overflowing library!!

P.S. Next up : Pumpkin cookies/ cake bites Recipe!!

Diwali - festival of lights!!!

Diwali is one of the biggest festivals celebrated throughout the country in India... With people wearing beautiful clothes, houses lit with diyas and candles, rangolis at the entrance of the house and the festive - jolly atmosphere!! Although I miss being in India at this time.. I decided to create the same atmosphere here in India by throwing a diwali party....

We decided to have a potluck as everyone makes yummy dishes on diwali and we thought it would be the perfect way to taste them....

Did not have Rangoli colors.. so made it with flour!!

                                             

It was a whole lot of fun.. I too lit my " tea-lights" , made rangoli.. Decorated my cute little apartment with flowers and lights.. And thus the mood was set...
         

Bought Flowers to decorate my home!!

                                       


We did our pooja.. As we do every year...

Pooja ki thali!

 And then started on with our party as friends starting coming in...

We sat and chatted, played games, laughed, took pictures.. ate yummy food!!

Chatting, laughing and enjoying with friends!!

                 

Me with first prepared platter of appetizers!! Please ignore the mess in the background.. preparations in order!!

We did light "fooljhadi" ... Which Yuthika brought.. Hank you so much girl!! That was the only thing missing.. As back in India you would hear the sound of firecrackers all around at night and the sky is all sparkling with it.. But this little thing is the one that does not make any noise but fulfills the purpose of firecrackers!!!!

Fooljhadiyan!!! yay!!!

Hubby made this face.. "My fooljhadi is coming to an end"

I hope the pictures would do justice...

Thanks to Yuthika-Barun, Nisha, Priyank, Ajay-Sneha for making this Diwali a memorable one and Himani we missed you a lot!!!!

P.S. Next up : Book Review..

The Ultimate Women's Expo!!!

Last month we had "The Ultimate Women's Expo" in L.A. I had been wanting to go there last year but could not make a plan.. This time although the plan failed for the first two days...  But on the last day hubby said today  "I"am taking you to the expo...   Yay!!

There was a lot of stuff to do, see and taste.. From make overs to tasting delicious pies and cakes..
Organic cosmetics to try... Book signings.. Table settings to look for... Let me tell you I did get my hands scrubbed by a number of body scrubs.. They were goood!!!
I did buy some stuff which I will be reviewing soon on the blog...
All in all it was a fun day with hubby plus I got to see another part of LA that I have been missing for almost 2 years now.. Downtown LA.. Yes I know.. I've been here for s long and I visited downtown LA just last month.. Isn't it strange how time flies away...

Leaving you with some pics now...

These are not posters.. But paintings.. Its still not complete if you see closely there are men painting it!!!

Garba-Dandiya Night Look!!!

It's that time of the year when the festivities start all around the globe!! From Thanksgiving- Christmas here to Dusshera -Diwali in India!!

I must say that I do miss being in India at this time when everyone around you is in a festive mood and you get a holiday every other day!! All around the city you can find houses laden with lights looking spectacular..
People in their finest clothes and jewelry.. Season greetings all around...

Ohhh.. how I miss it.... Well being here in US we do get a bit of carried away every time there is a celebration of an Indian festival.. and we too take out our finest Indian clothes and jewelry and join everyone for some fun!!

This year during Navratras we went for Garba - Dandiya Night! It was so much fun.. We danced to the traditional Gujrati tunes.. ate Indian food ( Hubby did.. I had a fast!) , met friends.. made some new friends.. all in all it was an amazing experience!!

This is what I wore!!

All the pics were taken indoor as it was night time...

What I'm wearing : Suit : from India, Shoes : India (My wedding ones)
My Accessories : Bangles : India (My engagement ones), Ring : Forever21, Earrings : India

How did you like it???
Do you have any Traditional festivities that you miss??

P.S. Next up : The Ultimate Women's EXPO

Lost!!

It feels like ages I've posted anything.. and you all may (or may not) be thinking where did I go all of a sudden..
Did I abandon my blog so soon..
Will I ever come back??

First of all "NO" I did not abandon my blog and "YES" I am back!!

My laptop is dead.. and I really mean it.. It's completely dead and therefore, I am not able to post anything.. or even do any of my daily work (which mainly consists of reading all your blog posts, surfing for new discounts and events and wasting my time or may be utilizing it on pinterest!.. but I love doing it)
It died without giving any warning.. and all the posts I had planned but did not put in queue could not be published!!

How am I posting now.. Well I borrowed my Hubby's "Official" laptop for my "Official" work!! hah!!

A lot took place in the last month or so.. starting from a number of Indian looks to a whole new hair do.. (you might be knowing about it if you follow me on instagram.. do you?? no?? well you can @mehakmittal)

I want to share all the things with you and will be doing so in the coming days!!
There is so much to share.. but I am going to take it slow...

Stay tuned for more....

:) :)

P.S Next up : My Garba- Dandiya Night look!!