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Well. Clearly my New Year resolution to blog more has gone over well, especially since I haven't posted since January.

And I completely missed my Blog's birthday (which was sometime in February) so oops. I'll put it in my GCal for next year...

I have some updates on 24 before 24: I have 3 things done so far! That is 12.5%! Yay!

I have been doing a minute amount of crafting recently. Here is a piece I call "wherever you go, think of me" It is made on a piece of wood that I covered with white tissue paper, painted blue, printed purple-y dots on with bubble wrap, and ripped out the land masses of the world from a book!

and here is another piece called "wherever you go, Go Blue!" It is yet another paper mosaic...I used a TRAVEL+LEISURE magazine and a Conde Nast Traveler to cut out maize and blue squares and then somehow magically created the block M.

And since today is the Ides of March, I will leave you with this quote.

"Why should Caesar get to stomp around like a giant, while the rest of us try not to get smushed under his big feet? What's so great about Caesar? Hm? Brutus is just as cute as Caesar. Brutus is just as smart as Caesar. People totally like Brutus just as much as they like Caesar. And when did it become okay for one person to be the boss of everybody, huh? Because that's not what Rome is about. We should totally just STAB CAESAR!"

running through my mind all day

I have a whole bunch of embroidery thread. I don't embroider, and I don't make friendship bracelets, so I had to find a new use for it. I really like peacock feathers, so I had the inspired idea to make one out of embroidery thread. The background is basically a collage of cream colored pictures that I cut from magazine glued onto wood and lightly painted gold. So gorgeous!

It was rainy today and the view from our window was spectacular. There was a light shining on the rain droplets, and tree branches were shadowed onto the window. And a snowman :)

24 before 24 - the List!

I'll revisit this post in November...let's see how far I get. Maybe it'll be a picture post, depending on how lucky I get.

1. Go to an Ohio winery

2. Put something for sale on Etsy

3. Take an impromptu road trip one weekend (I think stating it here makes it !impromptu, but oh well)

4. Go to a wedding (I'll need your help with this - I don't get invited to weddings. I can be a date! I'm willing to travel.)

5. Have a picnic at the park

6. Go to the Olympics :)

7. Attend a yoga class (no, I have not done this ever!)

8. Make out in a museum

9. Buy a guy a drink

10. Read at least 5 classic novels (suggestions?)

11. Go salsa dancing

12. Write a short story (about what?)

13. Audition

14. Do all the free/discounted museum things with my brand new Case Western ID

15. Go rock climbing

16. Grow/plant something

17. Make Limoncello or similar

18. Dress up like Lady Gaga and go in public

19. Go shooting

20. Make a music video

21. Go to the beach

22. Try belly dancing

23. Run a 5k in less than 30 minutes

24. (A secret one)

24 things to do before I turn 24

I'll be turning 24 in approximately a long time (10 months?) and I decided I need a "24 things to do before I turn 24" list.

What should be on my list?

It can be anonymous, and it can be far-fetched.

Please comment.

They are going to write a romantic comedy about my life someday

Romantic. Comedy. It will be funny for you, but unfunny for me. Yes, you will all be rooting for me to get together with Zac Efron at the end. But along the way, I will meet some vampires who are incredibly pasty and frail (and glittery). They'll just be bloodsuckers. But it will be ok. It will end with a leather-studded kiss in the sand!

Anyway...enough about me. The break was a busy one, craftily.

I found these cute little side tables. But...with my new obsession with paper mosaic (and dark brown furniture) I had to do some mosaicking.

AW so cute! I'm such a fan of paper mosaic! It's so pretty!

Also, with my love affair with seatbelts, I made a seatbelt wallet. It's pretty damn sweet. It was for a white elephant and it came with tea and 4 (FOUR!) (an excited number four, not four factorial) romance novels. I hope the stories are more entertaining than my romantic comedy of a life.

Maybe it will keep his/her money safe. I say his/her because I have no idea who ended up with it.

I found a face in my lunchbox!

The Year in Review...or similar

Yeah, I don't think I'm going to make a year in review post, especially since I didn't start this blog until March-ish. It would just be ~3/4 of the year in review, which is just pointless.

I'll just tell you my 2010 resolutions.

1. Spend more time doing arts & crafts and less time plotting against evil vampires.

2. Learn to play the guitar.

3. Brush up on my Hindi (I changed my facebook to Hindi! Haha. I can't understand a lot of it now because it is in non-slangy Hindi) and Italian (anyone want to take a trip to Rome? I'm free.)

4. Read more. I got this awesome book called Shatnerquake! from a white elephant this holiday season. Thank you, random person that I probably don't know who brought it to the white elephant. I plan on reading that really soon since I finished season 1 of Star Trek: The Original Series and season 2 is not streaming on Netflix.

5. Go places other than Ann Arbor. If you want me to visit you, let me know and chances are very likely that I'll come visit if you have something to offer me (like a bed and interesting city). I need to get over the 2009 Michigan Football team. Ann Arbor ain't gonna cut it anymore.

6. Blog more! I'm sure that the 6 of you who actually read my blog get annoyed when I go a month or two between posts.

May 2010 bring you a lot of trippy days and sloppy nights!

Damn, Girl!

So I've been obsessed with David Guetta's "Sexy Bitch" because of the slammin' beats and if you watch the video, Mr. Guetta looks like a total tool since he kinda just head bobs while checking out bad girls (I want an "I <3 Bad Girls" t-shirt, too!). But that is completely irrelevant to this post.

Over Thanksgiving, I decided that my apartment needs a new coffee table. And while I didn't get a new one, I kinda stole one from my parents' basement and re-did it.

New coat of paint and some glass frosting made this coffee table acceptably gorgeous.

BEFORE:

AFTER:
I also re-did a sterilite drawer set with some modpodge and gift wrap. I guess I can't gift wrap anything else this holiday season.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
Gosh, I sure hope I'm a bad girl. And I wish it were my birthday again. Again, irrelevant.

An Unfunny Post about trees and mosaics

There is a mosaic in Barcelona on La Rambla by Joan Miro. I attempted to copy it using magazines and catalogs (including Victoria's Secret! hahaha) It's super awesome.

Also, these next two home decor projects are something I've been slacking on for oh, about a year. First, the necklace holder! It's a piece of wood that broke accidentally...because I jumped on it. I nailed a bunch of nails into it and suprisingly, without counting, I got the exact number of necklaces I have! I am soo good at estimating. I deserve a prize.
This is a super awesome tree. It's behind my bed. It's made out of contact paper and LOVE. And yes, those are all the Harry Potters on my bookshelf.


Also, wtf: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704779704574551852323420822.html?mod=rss_US_News

Another Open Letter to Michigan Football

Dear Michigan Football,

This time around, it was going to be different. You promised that you wouldn't let me down after what you did to me last year. I, being a hopeless romantic, took you back.

The first few weeks in September, you were a changed football team. You beat Notre Dumb (and I got a 6 pack of Sam Adams out of it - kids, generally betting is bad) and I was elated. You continued to be undefeated and we had a fantastic September. It was glorious - we were ranked. I was love drunk, no alcohol required.

Then, you went away for a game. I understand, long distance is difficult. Only 18% of long distance couples stay together. I thought we were going to be part of that percentage. The first time you lost, I thought, "It's ok, it was a one-time thing. It won't happen again." And I took you back.

Then it happened again. I trusted you. Don't you get it? It's not like when we're apart, you can be unfaithful to me. You told me you were going to win. And I believed you. I took you back again, because when you're in love, it's hard to stay away. 7 games into the season, you had won 5 and I believed we were going to go all the way (to a bowl game). I tried to keep my trust in you, but it's hard to trust a team that loses their little brother twice in a row.

Yesterday was the last straw. The 2009 Michigan Football season, you and I are over. I felt like you were purposefully taking digs at me, throwing playful catches to OSU when you very well knew that I didn't like that. This relationship didn't have to end. It could have continued on for a few more months. But you had to end it. If you really loved me, you would have made an effort.

But you know what? I get it. When a cute girl walks by, you are going to fumble the ball.

Call me next September when you are ready for me. I'll be waiting for you. And I don't want to stop at third base.

Love,
Nidhi

It's been a while for a lot of things...

But luckily, I'm BACK! Also, this blog post is NOTHING compared to my friend Kristina meeting STEVE YZERMAN tonight, but I'm sure she's going to write about it on her blog.

Ain't nobody like my Desi Girl!
Desi Girl is my favorite Bollywood song (which is saying a lot, since I don't usually like Bollywood music, haha). My friend Grishma just moved to ATL and so as a going away present, I made her this wall hanging.


Grishma hates the song Desi Girl. Her parents apparently played it on repeat during the drive to ATL (from MICHIGAN). Poor girl. OR NOT! It's my ringtone so obviously I love it.


Palak Paneer Tofu what?
I got Veteran's Day off yesterday, so clearly the thing to do was attempt to make Indian food. My friend (and fellow Michigander in this godforsaken state) cook together sometimes, so we took my masala dubba (:D) spinach and attempted to make palak paneer with a hint of tofu. Then we also decided to make corn flour roti.

So the palak paneer (spinach and ricotta cheese)...well the paneer is supposed to be cubed and fried, but we accidentally may have melted it...it made the entire dish cheesy. The cubed tofu made up for the accidental meltyness...

And the roti ended up being awkward shapes since our beer-bottle-as-a-rolling-pin idea was a bit..er...sticky. So we squished it with our fingers. My mother would be proud. Not.
It was incredibly tasty. This is the first time I've ever attempted to make roti...and palak paneer as well, unless you count that time I wilted spinach and added spices (I don't).

Complete with a side of soymilk.


Scharffen Berger (but not really)
In 2007, I worked in Pittsburg, CA, and in a nearby city known as Berkeley, there is a chocolate factory known as Scharffen Berger. They have ridiculous chocolate. 62% cacao with cacao nubs in the bar. SO GOOD. I don't have the kind of money to order it online (a 3 oz bar costs 5$!) (I may actually have that kind of money, now that I think about it but oops) so I decided to make something similar.

Except it ended up being very different.

I double boiled the semi-sweet chocolate chips (difference #1: Their chocolate has no milk) very ingeniously - I don't own a double boiler but I DO own pots that fit conveniently inside each other. I melted the chocolate as such...

I also don't own any cacao beans(nor do I know where to find them) so I substituted espresso beans (difference #2).
Well, basically I guess this makes this chocolate bar just chocolate covered espresso beans. I'll take it.