Final Reveal *Project: Bachelor Pad*

{Medieval Headboard + Yellow/White Striped Painting}

It's finally out. The final reveal for The Passi's Bachelor Pad, hopefully not for too long. No, no, don't worry. I'm not insinuating anything, least of all to The Passi. It was interesting doing up his place, mostly because it led to three major realizations:

1. $1000 is not a lot of money.
2. Indian home stores are actually pretty good and quite inexpensive.
3. America is really expensive when it comes to furniture (and rugs), and sometimes it's not even that good.

Oh and one more. Target isn't too bad if you're starting out. Look and you shall find. I had to make a lot of sacrifices. He literally would have to hold and pull me away from stores and things I wanted to pick out for the place. I was obsessed. 

But, since the budget wasn't too high for a quick revamp, I kept to places like craigslist, Target and TJ Maxx and we found quite a few inexpensive and lovely things. Bear in mind, the flat was done from scratch, not a lot of money and although I prefer filled up walls and a little bit of chaotic symmetry, classic and modern styles mixed in, The Passi prefers clean empty walls and spartan modern design. So there had to be a bit of compromise. I also refurbished a few old things of his to use and decorate the place with. Oh and re photos, the sun wasn't very kind to us that weekend, which is why all the lamps are on during the day. Hope you enjoy the little tour!

Image above: I prefer plastic flowers to real ones, and prefer twiggy flowers like lavenders or long stemmed sunflowers. The curtain rod atop the window is actually a longbow. The Passi is an avid archer and we thought bringing some of his interests into the decoration would make this flat feel more homely. The paintings on either side of the window were done by me. We both love yellow and a solid yellow canvas was just what the room needed to bring more life into it.

You may notice that the room contains a platform bed. We weren't impressed very much with the regular beds and the box spring concept. In his previous apartment The Passi had a floor arrangement in his bedroom and had two XL twin spring mattresses. While he was keen on a memory foam king mattress, the budget was being overshot by over $600. 

Luckily, we found a local craftsmen, who made bed frames from refurbished wood, packing up his business for something new and decided to sell the beds for a pretty heavy discount. We asked him to tweak the measurements a little bit so it could fit the twins and voila, a beautiful pine wood bed for less than $200. To make the spring mattresses more comfortable we added a memory foam mattress topper from Target and it's one of the most comfortable beds I've slept on.

Image above: The wall behind the bed was missing a little something-something. We found this light medieval looking door at Hobby Lobby. We put it up on the wall so it may work as a pseudo-headboard-wall-art for the empty room. We had extra chairs lying about that his previous roommate left behind and instead of throwing them away converted one into a bed side table and one as a step that sits comfortably hidden away in his walk-in.

Image above: We changed the loo cover to make it slightly more interesting and give the room a bit more color. We had picked up the beach sign a few years ago and he's held on that so keeping with the beachy/nautical look of the shower curtain we went with nautical for the entire loo. There's even a sailor-like wine jug.

{A reminder to look forward to sunny, breezy days on the beach}

{Sailor's Wine}

Image above: My favorite part of the living room is this 1950's couch that we got off craigslist that cost us about $75. Its in great condition for its age and even has a sturdy pull-out bed for when guests are over. Ignore the food on the table, we were preparing for the housewarming while these pictures were being taken. The table on either side of the couch are chests that we picked up from TJ Maxx and act as a good storage space as well good looking side tables. Being as it is, quite a small apartment, the long horizontally placed mirror give the room a bit of depth and makes it seem slightly bigger than usual. We've tried to incorporate vintage and modern furniture along with a bit of the 60's with the lava lamp next to the couch.

{The bar ready to serve up cocktails along with The Passi's Curve Bow}

Lesson learnt at the end of this blog post: Only take vertical photographs. Geez.

...

Photo Credits and Copyright: All photos have been taken by Gayatri Kumar and belong to Look who's Wearing (LwW)

A Taste of Delhi

{Creamy Afghani Chicken at Location #2}

So I'm back in 'saadi dilli' (my Delhi) for a bit and while I wait around before I graduate in June I'm hitting the town for some good food, wine and lots of catching up. 

First on my list was a popular Food Tour on Trip Advisor, the Delhi Food Tours. It's run by a lovely couple Prashant and Ayesha, who personally conduct the tour and explain everything you need to know about different types of Indian cuisine concentrated in this amazing little melting pot of a city. 

The tour usually lasts about two hours and they personally take you to different joints and present to you the best they have to offer. With Indian food being so extensive and all that variety, it's important to let someone guide you to what you should really try and what you should give a miss. 

Wait a minute. Trust someone else's taste? No way! Well then, tell 'em what you'd like and they'll try to give you the best version of it, or at least the most authentic version of it.

Although I grew up in Delhi and as a rite of passage, visited all the places they took us to, we tried things I never would have ordered myself. I'd like to think I'm adventurous. Well, slightly. But when we go out, I tend to order my regular adventure. So it was good, going to the same haunts but trying something completely different. And loving it. 

I'd love to tell you where we ate, but that's the USP of DFT. Mystery. For us dilli-waalahs, it was a surprise at every step. For me, it was tasting new memories in the same old spots that already hold so many amazing childhood memories. 

I can tell you this though, we started off in South India with a nice vegetarian pre-set meal supplemented with chicken curry and a well-charred mutton fry. We then moved up slightly North/Northwest for Afghani-style creamy tandoori chicken, biryani, sheermaal (sweet milk bread with holes in it) and melt-in-your-mouth mutton kakori kababs. Though I frequent Location #2 a lot, I have to say that my favorite when it comes to Kakori's is the newly christened Sab Ki Khatir. However, the Afghani chicken at Location #2 was Ah-may-zing. *Drool*

We moved slightly further north for butter chicken (or chicken tikka masala to the rest of the world. Short rant - its not an English delicacy and it was in fact invented in India. Harumph). Finally, we proceeded all over India for dessert. I'm really sorry but Location #4 is not pictured in this post. Why, you ask. I was so full my brain stopped working. Literally. Give the over-stuffed lady a break, will ya?

All in all, a fun night with great company and ree-uh-ly good food. If you'd like to go on a Delhi Food Tour then please, by all means, contact Prashant or Ayesha here.

On a side note, you're probably shuddering in your chair right now thinking about the Delhi Belly. For those of you not in the know, it's the terminology applied to traveller's diarrhea contracted in India especially by tourists. If that's you, DFT has something special for you too. 

{South Indian Thali at Location #1}

{Punjabi Butter Chicken at Location #3}

{Punjabi 'Dal Makhani', ie, Rich Black Gram or Lentil Curry at Location #3}

...

Photo Credits and Copyright: All photos have been taken by Gayatri Kumar and belong to Look who's Wearing (LwW)

Weekend in Vegas

{Mon Ami Gabi, Hotel Paris}

So, we took a trip. A weekend in Vegas. Quite a weekend. With all of The Passi's friends from work. Thanks guys it was a really fun trip! 

We did the general things you do in Vegas, and then some. I would definitely recommend checking out the Freemont Street Experience. Its an eclectic mix of people with crazy lights, sounds and things to do. 

On the first day we got our giant 48 oz. Margaritas to go and walked about town and explored the Strip. For us, its always important to stay at a place that's centrally located so you can walk about town. We all put up at the Treasure Island, which is on the Strip but not right in the middle of the crazy traffic jam. The same night we got out our party wear, dressed up and painted the town red! 

Well, no. Not really. We capped out early, if you know what I mean. 

Pfft... Amateurs. 

We did enjoy an amazing dinner (the steaks are to die for) at the Mon Ami Gabi at the Hotel Paris (Paree) and then walked over to the Bellagio for our "bottle service" at Hyde. It makes a lot of sense to order bottle service in Vegas if you're in a big group. There are no lines, well almost, because if you order bottle service you'd be in the VIP line which is *much* shorter. Your drinks are by the bottle and you usually have a personal bartender pouring out your drinks. 

The problem here is that there's a little bit of a racket going on, at least at Hyde (watch out for the music if you open the link). They're not meant to touch or take your drinks away. That's the whole point of a bottle service, your table is your table and you can *safely* leave your drinks on your table so you can go dance and to come back and have your drink still there. No Sir-ee. The minute you put your drink down and turn your back, its gone. And this kept happening the entire night, which led to, me concentrating on the drink, more than the party. There's a limit to how much you can cheat your paying customers. Tut tut. You'll see in the Hyde photo below that my drink is sitting behind me, but when I turned, it was gone. 

Oh and a warning. If you're not a US resident, make sure you carry your passport to all clubs, no matter how *tiny* your clutch. They won't let you in. I had to trudge all the way back to our hotel cause my DL wasn't good enough. Harumph. 

The next morning we all had a greasy-post-drinking-breakfast at Denny's and spent the day by the pool at our hotel. Most pools (pool parties) have a cover to get in. So we stayed put at our hotel pool and ordered a Cabana. Again, makes sense if you're in a large group and want to hang out together. The pool chairs fill up surprisingly fast. 

After soaking up the sun - NOT. I'm from India. I don't do tans - everyone was out after another day of drinking, so The Passi and I headed down to the Stratosphere tower that has thrill rides on the 108th floor. Yikes. Imagine hanging off the side of a 1100 feet tall building. Oh wait, I did that. The Passi is obsessed with going on every crazy roller-coaster/thrill ride in the world and makes sure that I go with him no matter how scared I am. I have to say though, it was a lot of fun! I love heights! 

After, we found our way down to the Freemont Street (watch out for the music again!). Psychedelic lights and sounds and a different type of concert/live show every 15 feet. Quite an environment. We walked the entire length of the Freemont Street to beyond Neonopolis. We hung out around the Golden Gate hotel, the oldest hotel in Vegas and listened to some rock and country. By this time, we could only drink water or cola.

Since we were flying out early next morning, The Passi thought it would be a good idea if we stayed up all night and headed straight to the airport. No, it was not a good idea. Still recovering. We did however, meet up with our friends and headed into The Wynn for one last cocktail. Whadday weekend!

Hope to see you again Vegas, for all the things I couldn't do this time around! 

{Hyde, Bellagio and the case of the disappearing drink}

{Stratosphere Thrill Rides}

{Outside the oldest hotel in Vegas - Golden Gate - @ the Freemont Street Experience}

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Photo Credits and Copyright: All photos have been taken by Gayatri Kumar and belong to Look who's Wearing (LwW)

Meet Charlie

Hi everyone!

Meet Charlie. She's a quirky lil lab, who loves to bite and is very obedient. 

She's a new addition to The Passi's house. No, you do not need a doggy to do up your home. But, it doesn't hurt to adopt one. Especially cause they're so adorable. 

So, let's all welcome Charlie! Hurrah! 

Hello Charlie. I love you.

...

Photo Credits and Copyright: All photos have been taken by Gayatri Kumar and belong to Look who's Wearing (LwW)

Some Work, Some Play

Oh, Hello! 

Since you're here, might as well share some photos of the bachelor pad with you.

Who am I kidding?! I've been dying to show these photos to you! I was just trying my luck at being posh. Ahem. Anyway. 

As I've mentioned before in my earlier makeover posts, the thing that really makes your house a home should be the memories. Your best memories. Those, that when you look at them, make you happy, even if a little bit. 

And you never know, mixing the quirkiest of pieces may give you an area in your home that has the most character. 

In the first photo, from the far left, a toy I got from my visit to Beijing for The Passi, postcards from our trip to London, a holy beaded necklace I used to tie a letter I wrote him in high school, a metal poster he picked up from Portobello market in London after we met with one of his old friends, his favorite character (and movie) and his half of our tickets to Les Miserables at Queens Theatre in London. 

{Memories} 

Now, all work and no play makes The Passi a dull boy. A very important part of his new apartment. Like most (all) rentals, there's (obviously) no bar. But in the new apartment, a very strangely placed study desk right outside his bedroom door. Since it was an anomaly - well, for me - so I thought it might be a nice place to set up the bar.

The top cabinets are empty at the moment since a lot of the glasses are still in boxes that we need to unpack. Soon. But, once that's done, the glasses go in the  cabinet above the desk, tools and corkscrews in the wide drawer under the desk and shakers and ice buckets go in the cabinet at the bottom. 

{Bar}

Photo Credits and Copyright: All photos have been taken by Gayatri Kumar and belong to Look who's Wearing (LwW)

Sneak Peek into *Project: Bachelor Pad*

 Hello lovely people! 

I'm sorry about such a long wait, but as you know, setting up a home is a long drawn and tedious process. A lot of the work had to be shelved until The Passi was free to do some heavy lifting (as you can see below). He's a really busy man, doing really good work. So, I guess we can give him a pass. And as I can't really hire any one to do the heavy lifting for me, I guess he will have to suffice. But, I was pleasantly surprised that he has a great eye for symmetry and that's our OCD, together. 

The apartment is still unfinished. So, you might have to wait slightly longer for the final reveal, ie, until its all done. But I will bring you some sneak peaks over the next two weeks. 

There's a slight clarification I must also make at this point. I call this a bachelor pad mostly because I'm not going to be living here with The Passi. I'm still jobless. And will probably keep making regular trips between Fargo and New Delhi until I find one. 

Also, The Passi has a roommate and I have to be mindful of her things while setting up. So, I'll keep referring to her things on the way and how we have incorporated them in our style to set up. I say incorporated, because she has been really kind to let us take the reigns on the setting up process. Thank you Tara!

I'm on a tight budget which I'm about to reach, so some things may have to be cut down, and The Passi will fill them in on his own terms - read: bar stools - more on that later. I have some venting to do on that bit.  

So here's a list of things that we still need to get/do:

1) Rug for living room

2) Rug for bedroom

3) Complete DIY decor projects

4) Cushions/cushion covers

5) Lamp shade

6) Storage for Nerf Guns. Yes. I know. I said that too.

{The Passi and all the heavy lifting}

Photo Credits and Copyright: All photos have been taken by Gayatri Kumar and belong to Look who's Wearing (LwW)

Moving and Packing

We're moving!

And with moving, comes packing. Ugh. Not one of my favorite activities. We're not moving very far, just a few blocks down, so we've got one U-Haul, some furniture and some boxes. Also, because we don't have a lot of furniture, we dont really need to stack boxes. We also don't have too many boxes. So we thought, let's make the most of it and give our boxes some extra space.

The bigger boxes containing the tv and other fragilities will be boxed and sealed for cushioning. But we figured some of the others could remain top-open. This works exceptionally well for flatter boxes with less depth, like a Flat TV box, which can instantly get up to three times its original depth (see Picture #3 below). 

A simple tip for those moving, or when/if you move. Take the top open panels of your box and stick them together, standing up, with some tape. It'll give the box at least twice the depth needed for bigger things that don't have their own boxes or for stacking lots of easy access food while you're moving (and cleaning the kitchen).

 {3x more space in a flat TV box}

{Tape up around the edges}

~ Gayatri ~ 

Photo Credits and Copyright: All photos have been taken by Gayatri Kumar and belong to Look who's Wearing (LwW)

A Good Cause: reCAPTCHA

I love helping out, so much so, that sometimes people have to push me off and say, "You're helping too much!". I don't necessarily think thats a bad thing, but yes, I would love to help out and get others to help out too once in a while, without being told off. Ahem. 

Anyway, if you have the time, do watch this (embedded) brilliant TED video about "reCAPTCHA". Some may already know about CAPTCHA. It was an attempt to block spammers and spam bots from leaving ludicrous and irrelevant comments and links on your webpage or website.

But then, the people at google came up with reCAPTCHA. The thought behind it was, "How about while people write those silly words in word verification forms, they also help translate scanned books which the computer can't do." What a great idea!

What is reCAPTCHA?

"reCAPTCHA is a free CAPTCHA service that helps to digitize books, newspapers and old time radio shows." -- Google.

"reCAPTCHA asks commenters to read two words from a book. One of these words proves that they are a human, not a computer. The other word is a word that a computer couldn't read. Because the user is known to be a human, the reading of that word is probably correct. So you don't get comment spam, and the world gets books digitized. Everybody wins!" 

Apparently, hundreds and thousands of people type in word-verification forms on a daily basis. By typing in that second and "extra/unnecessary" word (while you're cursing the double amount of work you need to do to get to that page, your "attempt"at transcribing that extra word just helped properly scan and transcribe a paragraph from an old book. 

Wouldn't it be amazing if this very small self-less act of ours helped translate millions of books which are being digitized right now? This is a major step forward for libraries all around the world, digitizing forever old books that may rot away and allow us easy access to them. What a lovely good deed for the day, don't you think?

Lend a hand, just 10 seconds of your time. If you come across reCAPTCHA (as you will on my blog if you comment) fill in those two strange words and help digitize a book.

PS: If you want to have a go, or just help out because you feel like you want to contribute click on the "reCAPTCHA" button on the right sidebar and it will take you to their site and you can start helping out right away!

A Stylelist Home Feature and New Ventures

Hello lovely people!

I am so excited about my new project! Its a new move-in, so I'm doing up the place from scratch. You can follow my inspirations for it on Pinterest, here.

Talking about Pinterest, guess who made the "Top 5 Pinners to Follow" list this week on Stylelist Home? You're looking right at her blog page.

Thank you Stylelist Home for including me on your great list with such amazing pinners! I feel honored.

PS: Watch this space for more sneak peaks of Project: Bachelor Pad. 

Photo Credits and Copyright: All photos have been taken by Gayatri Kumar and belong to Look who's Wearing (LwW)

LwW Loves: The Koolaburra

{Via Koolaburra Blog}

{Via Koolaburra Blog}

LwW is loving the Koolaburra boots! Watch out UGGs, you have some serious competition. 

Although they look similar (the Koolaburras are easily mistakable as UGGs to the untrained eye) the Koolaburras are sassy yet casual, edgy and very symmetrical. They dare to go beyond the regular UGG and are not for the faint of heart.

My favorites include the Haley, Savannity, the Taylor and the Sadie Studded Buckle Boot (no longer available!). When I say they're not for the faint of heart, I meant be prepared to shell out $300+ on a pair of boots. That's a little steep considering you can get a sturdy pair of UGGs for half of that. But like I said, Koolaburras are the next UGGs and are taking the scene by storm. If you're a GILT member make sure you check out the Koolaburra sale for what's left! ($119+)

On a side note, LwW is also loving Kate Hudson rock the red pants!

*Sigh*