mundane monday - #68

the thing about indian festivals like diwali is that you have a generous supply of sweets and savouries around the house for the next few days. it has been a week (and a couple of days) since diwali and we've managed to exhaust all the sugar overdose. but when you look at the empty boxes it feels kind of sad and you wish there was something more :)

all the sugar craving made me remember that among the heap of photos i took but never released was this one - a bowl of lindt sea salt caramel truffles that we'd got months ago. seriously, this is one of the bestest chocolates ever. so dangerously tempting, it just melts in your mouth smoothly with just a touch of sea salt that makes it perfect.

apart from this past diwali week binge, of late i've been trying to reduce all added sugar, eat my vegetables, and do such adult things. so for now, i'm able to look at this pic and remember the time i ate them, without feeling the need to rush to the store and grab a bag. good job, right ?

in some parallel universe i think chocolate is the most healthy superfood there is. till such time we can all find that universe and migrate there, lets make the best of this one. sigh.

have a good week ahead folks, wherever you are.

mundane monday - #67

today, july 4th, as many know, is Independence Day in the united states. so i thought it would be appropriate to post a photo of a George Washington presidential dollar in my collection.

washington was the first president of the united states, one of the founding fathers of the country, and commanded the continental army in the revolutionary war victory against the british. 

the coin is one in the series of presidential dollar coins issues by the US mint to commemorate it's presidents. 

see my earlier pics of a US penny (1 cent coin) here and that of my coin box here. 

mundane monday - #66

half the year has almost gone by already, and i realise i've made just one other mundane monday post this year. huhh. i suppose i haven't been taking that many photos this year. a few months back i got a new phone with a really good camera, and that has made me use my actual camera even less. this photo im posting today is one of those few from the camera this year.

this was taken a couple of months back, before i left for my month-long hometown visit. i was shopping around for some random stuff, when i saw this set of colourful measuring cups and spoons. they looked so pretty and i decided to get them for my cousin.
measuring cups are so handy in the kitchen, and it is always an added bonus if useful stuff is also pretty. they look so gorgeously colourful, don't they ?

the set of measuring cups that i myself have now, is this red one from ikea.

some more pops of colour here, here, and here !

incidentally, the old set of measuring cups i had was one of the early pics i took for the monday series. i realise they were pretty blah ones, though :)

mundane monday - #65

i took a photo today for the mundane monday series after many weeks - it was a surprise that the camera even held the charge for so long, i remember the last i charged it was some time in jan !

anyway, it is going to be almost a month since we moved into this apartment, and here are the keys - :)

march is here, and hope the weather gets nicer soon. i have lists to make and shopping to be done in the next few weeks, in anticipation of a long trip by the end of march, fingers crossed :)

hope you are having good days and nice weather wherever you are !

mundane monday - #64

this is a photo of my coin bank that i took back in 2012, when it was almost full... ( it is shaped like an old red british pillar box, and i just opened the top/lid to take this pic.)

among the assortment of coins you can find a few of the US state 'quarters' - 25cent coins - which are part of a series of 50 coins issued by the US mint over a period of 10 years, to commemorate each of US's 50 states. i think i started sometime in 2009, and finished collecting them by the end of 2011. during the time i did that, it was always interesting to eagerly go through all the spare change i could find, to see if i got any new state that i didnt have :) 

the US mint also has several other coin series, like 'america the beautiful' quarters (featuring US natural landscapes) and presidential dollars, of which i have managed to collect some.

(the state quarters of wyoming and idaho can be seen in this pic, and oregon partly seen.)

mundane monday - #63

today being the first monday of the year, i thought it wouldn't be a good idea to put it off :)

this mug was gifted to me last year by a friend who really gets me :D

mundane monday #62

and so here it is, the last monday of the year.
theres a lot about this year that i'd like to forget, but one of the few things that i'd like to remember is that this is the year that i became a potterhead. (oh yeah, i know i'm supposed to be an adult and everything, but hey.)

i posted something about books last december too. still, i end yet another year without reading as much as i would have liked to.

mundane monday - #61

just one more monday to go in the year...

'tis the season... and the halls are decked...

as the year winds down and another is around the corner, i think it is at the very core of human nature, to rise up from all that seems to drag us down, and move on with eternal hope. 

in reply to every adversity that life throws our way, hope is the only answer that humanity has to offer, time and again. 

hope that each day shall be better than yesterday, that each year will be better than the one gone by. 

mundane monday - #60

i haven't been taking a whole lot of photos lately, and this soapy sponge is one from the archives :) i had taken this in 2012, but i think it didnt make it to the monday posts so far. the original picture is here, but i've posted today a slightly edited version. 

mundane monday - #59

november is drawing to a close, and it is the beginning of the end of the year. the dipping mercury makes you crave warm cups of tea, crank up the heater and just curl up under covers - until of course, reality gives you a kick behind and reminds you of the never ending list of chores :)

meanwhile, coming to this monday's picture, the one below is a set of rattan boxes from ikea, called 'fryken'. (i use them to hold an odd assortment of stuff in my living room and bedroom, but emptied them out to take the pic.) it is the one here. the original photo when i took it looked quite 'blah', but turned out much better after a bit of editing.
see my other photos of stuff from ikea here and here.

mundane monday - #58 | diwali special, throwback monday !

today happens to be not just any monday, but the eve of diwali, india's biggest festival.
i think that is an excellent reason to have a post that combines both my monday and thursday series, making it a throwback monday :)

and so, here is a vintage diwali ad, from one of those classic indian brands, HMT watches. (hmt stood for hindustan machine tools)

image source - from here

and i also found this article about 5 of the iconic models of hmt - interesting to read about the 'dowry watch', i had no clue about that !

mundane monday - #57

yeah. i've generally been a person for whom 'makeup' means just moisturiser. i wear 'real' makeup (like foundation+compact+lipstick etc) no more than a few times a year.
but then there are certain days in your life when you get up in the morning and see in the mirror, and the real 'natural' shocks the hell out of you. you find some creature in the mirror which seems to be a hybrid variety got by crossing medusa with a mountain troll.
i think mornings are not a good time to look 'natural', at least not for me.

mundane monday - #56

coming after a considerable break, today's monday photo just happens to be a splash of colour ! not that i planned for it, but i just saw it and realised it would look beautiful.

this is a bottle of fennel candy - or candy coated fennel - whichever way you prefer it. though i'm sweet toothed, i personally find this too sugary for my taste. and yet, it looks so colourful that i was tempted to take a picture of it :)

fennel candy is common at most indian restaurants, given at the end of a meal as a mouth freshener. it is also very much a part of indian weddings, called 'meetha saunf' in hindi, and 'arisi mittaai' or 'palli mittaai' in my mother tongue tamil. it is also common in south indian weddings to have the names of the couple written with this fennel candy, on a tray filled with sugar ! the colour combination of pink and orange itself reminds me so much of an indian wedding !

find one more photo of this here .

mundane monday - #55

devils wear prada, and some of us lesser devils have fake prada ;)

mundane monday - #54

who among us doesn't wish life came with a remote ?

if only we could skip the scenes we didn't like, or go back and forth as and when we please...

mundane monday - #53

potpourri on the table... 

why is it that fragrances and memories are so connected ? why do a favourite fragrance and a fond memory both make us close our eyes and take a deep breath ? 

what are the scents that kindle your memory ?

mundane monday - #52

 i was looking around the house for something to take a photo of, and it suddenly struck me that i hadn't introduced to the world my very latest friend, companion and partner who has been in my life the past few weeks.
and so, without further ado, i present to you the lovely hp chromebook 14. yup, in my favourite turquoise. (just look to your right and left in the blog, and you'll see how much i like the colour :) )

so far, i've been really liking the experience of using it. i have to mention though that i have been a devoted chrome and google user for quite a few years now, so except for slight differences in the keyboard, my transition from pc to chromebook was pretty smooth - its definitely not for those who may need to use specific software and such. but pretty much all i do with the pc, i do it on a browser and so i had been convinced for long that it would be a right fit for me.  (i'll leave it here, since i dont intend to make this a full fledged review. but if you have any questions about it feel free to ask !)

among other things, the weather has turned good. and i mean open-up-the-doors-and-windows good. and if that doesn't give me the much needed nudge push (and shove) to spend more time outdoors, i dont know what will.

mundane monday - #51

i was going to leave the post pretty much wordless this week... but i thought i'd leave it with this quote instead. 

"the shoe that fits one person pinches another ; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases" 

-  Carl Jung

and i added the quote to the image later - 

mundane monday - #50

im one of those people who love rain. there is something about it that lifts my spirits, makes me instantly cheerful.

so today was one of those days where i had the joy of seeing raindrops splash down on the windows, making the whole world outside look fresh and all washed :)

the past few days have been really good weather-wise, with trees that were just all twigs suddenly bursting into bloom, and the grassy patches getting greener by the day. magnolias and daffodils are beginning to show their heads, and it cheers me up so much every time i see them...

nature is so wonderful, it changes your mood like nothing else can. (well at least it does for me :) )

i also realised when starting this post that this is the 50th mundane monday post ! i started the mundane monday project on the blog towards the end of 2012, and counting how many mondays are actually there over a period of almost two and a half years should give an idea of how 'regular' the posts have been ;)  well at least i'm happy that i'm still sticking to it and making my best efforts despite my limitations.

yeah, i know i probably sound like giving myself a 'star' on my homework, but hey, what is there to life if not for these little indulgences :)

also, im super happy that the 50th post happened to be about rain, which is one of my most favourite things. rainy days just make your everyday cup of ginger-chai all the more special, dont they ?

mundane monday - #49

found this little tag at the bottom of a new t-shirt that i got. 

one of those things that seem more easier said than done. especially the first part. you cant always do all that you like, can you ? there are always so many factors that restrict what you can do, regardless of what you like.
being able to do what (or whatever) you like feels like such a utopian dream. 

right now, however, i guess i like taking tacky pictures of my clothes hung near windows and putting random filters on them, so i'll leave it at that.
at least i like the little things i do. they matter, too.