Peanut Butter Tofu

Last night after a week of eating dinner out for one reason or another, I finally decided to cook a quick and easy meal after a long day at work. When asked Chirag what he would like to have, he quickly said "Peanut butter tofu!".

This has definitely become one of our favorite tofu dishes. I tell myself it's healthy because it has tofu and I try my best to control the amount of salt and sugar; however, I hesitate to label it as such. It tastes a little too good to be healthy! ;) I believe I found the original inspiration for this recipe on Bhavana's Kitchen YouTube Channel. However, I couldn't find the exact link. I'm not sure what the correct name for this recipe is... it's more like sweet and sour tofu, but we just like to call it peanut butter tofu in our house. I've made it countless number of times now and tweaked it slightly to suit our taste. 

The ingredient list may seem a bit long, but this is honestly a quick 30 minute meal. First, I start by cutting up some firm tofu in little cubes and slow fry them in a bit of oil. Once I start to see them get slightly golden, I will add about 1 tbsp of ginger-garlic paste, depending on the amount of tofu. Splash a bit of sesame seed oil and saute until the tofu is golden brown on all sides. At the end for the last minute, I'll add some sesame seeds and cook them with the tofu. You can leave this last step out, but I like the texture and layer of flavor this adds. At this time, I also go ahead and start cooking some rice to go with this dish. I use Basmati rice, but Jasmine rice would probably be more appropriate.

I set my tofu aside and in a medium-sized sauce pan I add some oil and saute some onions and green-bell peppers. Now, I get started on the fun part - the yummy sauce! I push the onions and bell peppers to the sides of the sauce pan and in the middle I add about 1 tbsp of peanut butter, 1 tbsp of ketchup, 1-2 teaspoon of Sriracha sauce, a splash of rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, and about 1/2 to 1 tbsp of soy sauce. The key ingredient here is the plum sauce! It adds just the right amount of sweetness and although I've substituted it for regular sweet and sour sauce in the past, the plum sauce really is the best in this dish. I add about 1 - 1/2 tbsp of plum sauce to this mixture and cook this sauce for about 30-45 seconds. The sauce will be quite thick and clumpy at first, but allowing these ingredients to cook together at first helps the flavors really develop. However, more than 45 seconds and you may over cook it... so be careful at this stage. Then I add about 1/4 cup of water or more depending on how thin you'd like the sauce. I like it the consistency of pasta sauce so it hangs on well to the veggies and tofu. Speaking of which, lastly I add the tofu and let it cook together for about 5 minutes and you're done!

I love adding pineapple to almost any dish and it tastes absolutely delicious in this one as well. You can totally adjust the amount of spicy and sweet depending on the amount of Sriracha and plum sauce. Experiment with different veggies you have on hand that day and could also substitute chicken for tofu here. But honestly, this sauce adds so much flavor to the tofu that I believe it would totally please both the veggie heads and meat-eaters alike. 

What are you cooking for dinner tonight?

Packing Post: Into the Water

Packing for the beach always gets me a little nervous more than excited. Yes, I love the sunny weather, diving into the water, and relaxing on the beach... but what I don't love so much is feeling self-conscious about my own body.

Prior to a beach vacation with my now-hubby five years ago, I had never even tried on a bikini let alone strut my stuff out in public. I've never been incredibly overweight, but just like most people I've always thought I'd look better if  I could lose an extra few pounds (or 10), maybe tone up my arms or abs, etc. One thing that I really love about my husband is that he really and truly loves me for who I am. He is always giving me confidence to be more comfortable in my own skin. I can't say that I've become so confident with my body now to where I see myself frolicking around the pool with in my tiny bikini by any means. Yet, I've definitely learned to make peace with how my body looks and still strive to be fit and improve my health with a positive frame of mind.

view from our balcony

Last week when I was starting to think about what I would be taking with me on our upcoming trip, I had those same negative thoughts going through my head again. Instead of focusing on being happy about being on the beach/pool and enjoying the vacation, I was more focused on worrying about how I would look in my bathing suit. I really envy people who don't have those perfect bodies, yet are still so confident in their own skin. Sometimes, it's just having that internal confidence that makes them look so beautiful on the outside.

Somewhere along the way as I started to pack and realized that I probably should have been working out a lot harder several months in advance, I finally just threw my hands up and went... "It is what it is... I deserve this trip and I'm going to make the most of it!" I didn't look all that bad in the mirror. Maybe if I found a cute cover-up and started thinking a little more positively, my confidence would disguise my imperfect curves and I'd just have more fun on the trip.

I started with my full coverage bathing suits. All my suits are fairly old because as you can imagine I truly dislike shopping for this category of items. This one piece is in my favorite colors - yellow. The cover-up was a last minute deal from Macy's. They only had one size left and it was pretty pricey when I first picked up. I hesitated to bring it to the cash register, but I got super lucky and it rang up for just $23 bucks (down from almost $50) score! I can't believe that it's still available online. I love the color contrast and I think blue and yellow go well together. I was thinking of buying a straw beach bag and I looked high and low for a one that I really loved, but came up empty handed. I wanted to stick with my new rules of shopping and didn't want to compromise if I really didn't like the item. Then I remembered getting this free tote with my last Victoria Secret order. I was worried about wearing black on the beach... but the little colored tassels and small pink bag made it work for me! It was big enough and it served it's purpose. The shades were a gift from Chirag. As much as I wanted the pricier Ray Ban version, I was very happy that I could be more carefree with these on the water. I loved them and wore them basically everyday too!

You may recall this next suit from my April Budget Post. It was definitely a another great deal at only $10 bucks. I was a little worried about the print & cut, but it was actually very slimming. The tank is also from Old Navy and I really liked the fun pineapple print.

Oh, the bikini! In my mind I still wasn't sure if I'd even wear it on our trip... but I remembered to stay positive. This colorful cover-up from H&M made me super happy! It was slightly pricer than the other one, but it looked super cute on and I needed something to boost my confidence! I actually ended up wearing this outfit on our very first day there. I guess I was ready to be brave and just dive right in! ;)

Cover-up with black bikini

And below is my last ensemble. I think if you are like me and tend be a little self-conscious when it comes to swim suits then a great cover-up is totally worth the money. Although once it was time to jump in the pool I had to take it off... I could hide under the water and quickly slip on my cover-up when I was ready to sit by the pool side to read my book. 

For this trip, I tried to keep the hair, makeup, and toiletries to a minimum and used up some samples I had laying around. The resort provided us with SPF 50 sunscreen for the beach/pool, which was great so that we didn't have to check in a bag for a huge bottle of sunscreen. A couple of my favorites on this trip was the Nars The Multiple Stick and the Smashbox CC cream. I wore these two products pretty much every single day.

Makeup

Hair/Face/Body

As for the evening dinner dates and walks on the beach I choose the following dresses with minimal jewelry and accessories. All the dresses and the jumpsuit were light weight and very easy to pack. I'm enjoying doing these packing pictures because laying it all out made me realize that one item I need to add to my shopping list is a nice black clutch. Since we were mainly staying in the resort I could do without it for now. 

I'm really starting to enjoy doing my packing this way. With my type A personality seeing everything laid out helped me remember the little things might forget. For example, in addition to my toothbrush and razor, I remembered to throw in some hair ties, bobby-pins, and a hair clip after laying out my toiletries. I also added an outfit with some sparkly shorts for a night of dancing. For the plane ride I grabbed my trusty jean jacket and a warm scarf. Everything was neatly packed away in my handy packing cubes and off we went! 

via my Instagram

Link-Up: PinkSole: #HowISummer

What are you packing for your beach vacation this summer?

Recharged From Jamaica

I'm excited to be back from our Jamaican vacation!! What?! No, there was no type-o there... I'm honestly feeling really good and excited to be back from our week long vacation in paradise.

This vacation was unlike any other one we've gone on before! We booked one of the best all inclusive resorts on the island and for five days we did basically nothing but relax and recharge ourselves. We didn't take any excursions or venture out into the mainland. We just soaked up the beautiful sun, took walks on the sandy beaches, ate some delicious food, enjoyed exotic drinks, and got plenty of much needed rest. We both just needed time to step away from it all and reconnect... not only with each other, but also to reconnect with ourselves.

Speaking of reconnecting with ourselves... ever since I discovered Happier with Gretchen Rubin podcast, I've really been wanting to read her book, The Happiness Project. So, I picked up her book one day when I running around town trying to finish up a few last minute errands as well as looking for a bathing suit cover-up prior to leaving on our trip. (packing post?) I'm not much of a reader at all. I've always wanted to read, but to be honest with you... I'm just not a good reader. I know that probably sounds a bit odd to some people. But I tend to loose interest in books really fast if it's filled with fancy vocabulary words or those which are little too philosophical with hidden meanings that take me forever to interpret. I like a book that is pretty straight forward and easy to read. I also tend to gravitate towards self-help or books on subjects that can be applied in my daily life versus fictional story books. I really envy people that can read long novels and books like Lord of the Rings or Harry Pottery. I'll watch those movies any day... but I know that reading those books would probably take me a really long time and therefore just frustrate me. I digress.

When I picked up the book that afternoon, I had the intention to read the entire book on trip. But I also secretly knew that I probably wouldn't. Reading is something I've always tried to incorporate into my life, but have failed more times than I care to recall. On the very first day as I threw a copy the June issue of Style Watch into my beach bag, I reached for The Happiness Project with hope that I would somehow find inspiration to start and finish this entire book while in Jamaica.

via my Instagram

Well, I can't exactly pin point what inspired me to keep reading each and every day on our trip.... maybe it was the beautiful weather, the relaxed and happy Jamaican workers at the resort, or being around other resort guests who seemed so engrossed in their own readings while they worked on their tan. I'm sure this is no big deal to those that read not one but several books on their vacation, but I felt so good not only finishing this book, but incorporating it into my life right away. It felt good to read something that forced me to take a closer look at my own happiness. From the minute I started reading the book I was so inspired by each and every chapter and when I finally finished reading the last sentence the only thing I could think about was my own happiness project. [More on that later].

I definitely think reading this book also impacted my interaction with Chirag on this trip. Prior to leaving, we had been bickering about something really stupid. I really can't even recall exactly what it was. I think we were both been a little stressed and too wrapped up in our daily work lives to listen or pay any attention to each other. It felt so good to be carefree and happy together again.

Appetizer

One of the best parts of the trip was our very last night at the resort. We had reservations at their Gourmet Restaurant at 7:30pm. On most days, we stayed on the beach or at the pool well into the evening and around 6:00 to 6:30pm and our dinner reservations were typically late around 8:30-9ish. So, we had created a little ritual for ourselves to go up to the lounge around that time and just sit together to have some cappuccino and cookies before heading upstairs to shower and get ready the evening. But on our last day, we tried to squeeze a couple of last minute things we hadn't explored around the resort. By the time we had gotten some lunch and dipped into the pool it was already midday. We had enjoyed beautiful 95 degree weather for all four days, but on our very last day we had barely been in the pool for close an hour when we started to see clouds rolling in. Most of the guests all cleared the beach/pool, but we decided to stay in with some friends we had met from Canada. We figured we were already wet and hopefully it would just rain for a little bit. Well, we were right. It got cloudy and rained really lightly for about 20 minutes and then it started to clear up. Chirag still got a chance to play volleyball with the other guys at the resort just as we had for the four other days.... everyday at 3:00pm. We decided to stay at the pool longer today because we had gotten in so late in the day and we wanted to make the most of our last day. By the time we started to think about calling it a day and head upstairs it was pretty late. I would barely have an hour to wash my hair and get ready for dinner. I hesitated about my daily cappuccino & cookie ritual. I was too worried about having enough time to get ready and look pretty for dinner. Chirag even mentioned that it was ok if I didn't want to go, but then I recalled The Happiness Project. It's the little things that matter and these are the moments I needed to savor on our trip. Chirag would think I looked great for dinner no matter what dress I wore or how frizzy my hair got. This little ritual we had created for ourselves was way more important that any other part of our trip. 

Main Course

Jamaicans have a very laid-back attitude and don't take life too seriously. It took me sometime to realize that this would be the best souvenir I could take back with me from Jamaica versus any little trinket. At first, I was getting a bit frustrated because I like to get things done on time and tend to be a bit of a perfectionist. There was a few minor things that didn't quiet go right during our stay at the resort. I really think that it was reading Rubin's book that was reminding me to keep the bigger picture in mind and just let it go. So, what if we didn't get our room service delivered to us at 2am? We had fallen asleep anyways. So, what if they forgot our turn down service one night? I can pull the covers down myself. Normally, I would have probably called the front-desk to complain. But getting upset over these little things was just going to have a negative effect on our mood and in the end it wasn't going to change anything. The workers at the resort were super relaxed... it wasn't like they would not be attentive towards us. If we asked for something, they would definitely get it done... but it might take a little longer than expected. It's just their culture and it's actually something I needed to learn to embrace myself.

Our Canadian Friends: Monika and Casina

It's funny how life works out when you make your own happiness a priority. Somehow, that last evening we had enough time to enjoy our relaxed evening cappuccino, shower, ( I even had time to blow dry my hair), and make it to dinner 5 minutes early. On top of all that... I didn't have high expectations for our dinner because what was I (as a vegetarian) going to get a a Gourmet Restaurant for dinner besides some steamed veggies and at the least a pretty good desert dish? But from start to finish... I enjoyed each an everyone one of my three courses! The highlight of dinner however, wasn't the food at all. In the middle of dinner, Chirag and I were just discussing our past few days at the resort. In passing Chirag made a joke about being "snooty" (since were at this "gourmet" restaurant) and I busted out with a huge laugh... which only made us both laugh out even louder! I remember thinking this feels so good... when was the last time we genuinely laughed together like this? Although it had rained and I was a little concerned about making the most of our last day at the resort... the best part had been our evening cappuccino and reconnecting with each other.

Desert

This trip was exactly what a doctor would've prescribed. I feel recharged, refocused, and re-inspired to continue on my pursuit of happiness. 

Our Daily Elevator Selfies

How did you recharge this past weekend?

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Three Things Thursday: July 4th Rewind

This week I have been busy getting ready for the upcoming vacay and also been reminiscing about our last July 4th. long weekend. I have to say it was one of the better ones for sure. So, for today's #3TT I thought I'd rewind and share three of my favorite things from last July 4th.

Are you interested joining #3TT? Please visit the hosts: Salma, Raj, or Nisha's blog, for all the details on how to join the linkup.

One: Kaboom Town

Last year we celebrated July 4th. by going to Kaboom Town with our friends K&V. It sort of ended up being a little last minute, but we had a great time! It's a big outdoor concert in our local area with fireworks, funnel cakes, and an awesome air show.... oh, yeah!!! :D
I think this is one of the best ways to celebrate the 4th. Just grab a picnic blanket and head out to have enjoy the fireworks with your friends and family!

Two: Rent a Cabin

A long weekend is always a great time to get away. Last year after Kaboom Town we rented a small cabin in the hill country and enjoyed a little time away from the busy city life with our friends M&A. Road trips and little get away with friends is always a great way to reboot yourself. We had such a fabulous time doing wine tastings, spending a day out on the water, and exploring another side of Texas.

Three: Red, White, and Blue Spirit

Going through my old pics from the last July 4th, I came across this instagram pic of planning my outfits for the long weekend. This was probably one of the first times that I actually wore red, white, and blue on July 4th... I paid much attention to these little details before. I have to say... something about wearing these colors did make me feel a bit more patriotic!

Although I'm a little sad that we will be missing out on Kaboom Town and watching the fireworks this year with our friends... I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I'm dying to hit the beach in Jamaica!!! :)


What will you be doing this July 4th weekend?

My Spiritual Master

I've written about what a positive influence Gretchen Ruben's podcast, Happier, has had on me in the past. In one of her latest episodes, she talked about imitating your spiritual master.

Gretchen spoke about her own spiritual master, St. Therese of Lisieux and Elizabeth went on to share her's - Barbara Walters. They each spoke about their master's personal characteristics that they were drawn to and inspired to imitate in their own lives. Without a second thought, I knew exactly who my spiritual master is... my Dad. 

Dad has always been the one to lead by example. He not only talks the talk, but he actually walks it as well. I'm not saying my Dad is perfect... ok, maybe I am... but don't we all want to believe that our parents are the best? There are several characteristics of my Dad that I have always admired and try to imitate myself.  It didn't occur to me until a bit later, that Father's Day had just passed... so what better time than now to reflect on my thoughts on this subject. I'm hoping that in doing so, it will remind me to practice these characteristics in my daily life more so than I have been. 


Be Accepting:

Dad is always accepting of people from all walks of life. I've never really seen him judge anyone and he always believes in giving people a second chance. Being that he is Hindu and practices a polytheistic religion, he is always educating himself about other religions as well. He has studied several different religions throughout his life and always try to show me that in the end they all have something in common. I really admire that about him.

For the most part, I believe that I'm a pretty accepting person. However, I can't say that I haven't slipped up once in a while and judged someone before giving them a chance. I could definitely do better.

Be Organize & Prepared:

I'm definitely my Dad's daughter in this sense. He is always very organized and prepared for almost anything. I remember when him and my mom were traveling together to India for the first time and my sister and I could not go. He told me that he had prepared his Will and what do you in case something terrible should happen to them... just in case! I was pretty scared when he told me about this since I was barely a teen at the time, but I do admire that Dad always thinks ahead. I think that is partly why I always want to make sure I have a plan B for any situation. Being organized and prepared gives me a sense of control over my life and makes me less anxious.

Be Patient & Understanding:

My Dad has been living with three women for about 20 something years now. One thing that I really admire and hope to imitate is his patience and understanding. With that much estrogen in the household you can imagine all the mood swings and "drama queen" moments he has endured. In fact the two dogs we have had in the past were both female as well! I have seen Dad really try to understand the female mind. He has actually read books and tries his best to understand why we get so crazy sometimes and tries his hardest to be patient with us. 

I'm a fairly understanding person, but I really have no patience... my husband is always testing me, but it's something that I try to be consciously aware of and it continues to be a work in progress.

Don't Stop Learning or Taking Risks:

There is always something new Dad wants to learn. He taught himself to swim in his early 40s, he has taken painting classes, learned to cook Indian food, taught himself to be tech savvy... the list goes on and he has also taken some big risks in his life. 

Seeing him always eager to learn something new and taking risks definitely inspires me. I do think that I try to imitate this behavior in my life, but I could do better.

Recently, my husband and I planned on taking a pretty big risk. Many people warned us about the challenges we would face, but my Dad encouraged us to proceed as long as it was calculated risk.

Photography has been something I've really been wanting to learn for a long time now. It's also something that I've been procrastinating about. Every time I think of singing up for a photography class something seems to happen and it just doesn't work out. Excuses... excuses.

Don't Be So Serious:

As my sister and I have grown older, I've also seen Dad grow and change along side us. He has loosened up a lot over the years and encouraged us to have fun and experience life to the fullest. As we get older, I love that I'm able to be fully honest with Dad and hang out with him just as friends.
Sometimes, I can get too serious and worry about what's next. I'm usually the one trying to plan everything and be the responsible one in the group. Dad is always reminding me to loosen up a bit and not take life so seriously. He's often saying "...just learn to enjoy the ride".

I believe we all have our own Spiritual Master... someone that inspires us to be a better person.... it's just that sometimes we may not consciously realize who it is yet. 

So, I'm curious.... who is your spiritual master?

Three Things Thursday: Foodie Edition

This week we have been stuffing our faces with delicious home-made food since Chirag's mom was in town. It was mainly all Indian food because that's her speciality. However, we did go out a couple of times to some pretty cool places around the Dallas area that I thought it'd share with you today.

One: Old Time Creamery

My MIL is a huge fan of kulfi - a type of Indian ice cream. So when we discovered Old Time Creamery, we just knew we had to take her there.
They have tons of Indian flavors... a few that I can recall are: paan (bettle leaf), chikoo (sapodilla), sitafal (custard apple), and of course mango. They also have your American flavors like: red velvet, birthday cake, and amaretto... so it's really great for the whole family. What I liked most about this ice-cream shop was that even though they had these exotic flavors, none of them really tasted "artificial". Now, I'm not saying they are all natural... I'm not sure about that, but they sure did taste good!
In addition to the yummy ice-cream, they also have a super friendly staff that will let you try all the flavors and give you some great suggestions. They just seemed happy.... which is always a big plus in my book!
My in-laws loved this place! It took them back to their childhood in India. Our favorite flavors were kulfi (of course) and falooda. If you are ever in the area, I would highly recommend it.
Currently, there is only one location in Plano, TX. If you or someone you know is a lover of Indian ice-creams then this place is a must!


Two: Pizza Hut's Sweet Sriracha Dyamite

You may not have Old Time Creamery near you... but I'm sure there is a Pizza Hut right around the corner.
For a long time, I had given up on Pizza Hut.... I think I just got bored with it and just started to prefer other speciality pizza shops or even Papa John's over Pizza Hut. That was until I tired one of their new speciality pizza - the Sweet Siracaha Dynamite.
Now, if you don't like spicy, then this pizza is not for you. My in-laws couldn't handle the heat... but my mask (aunt) kept going back for more even though her mouth was a bit on fire!
The pizza comes with their honey Sriracha sauce, jalapeño peppers, Peruvian cherry peppers, pineapple and grilled chicken. I'm a veggie... so I get mine without the chicken. The combination of flavors truly is dyamite! ;)

via

Three: Bahama Bucks

I grew up in India until I was about 10 years old. Even though sometimes I complain that Dallas heat is worse... summers in India are really something else. It's almost unbearable! One thing I remember during those days is my grandparents taking me snow-cone street vendor (barf-no-gollo) to cool us off a bit on those days that we just couldn't take it anymore.
Nothing too fancy... the street vendor would shave up some ice and load it up with some sort of flavored syrup. I'm not sure which one was my favorite... I just remember it being red.
Well, this past weekend we stopped by a Bahama Bucks location that just opened up next to my SIL's house. I was immediately taken by to those hot summer days. I have to admit, I did start missing my grandparents a bit.

They have so many flavors it's really hard to decide... plus they save their ice super thin which makes it just melt in your mouth. We all tried a different flavor and let me tell you... they were all amazing! I tried the Tiger's Blood and Passion Fruit flavors together (both were red... go figure!) and they put a little bit of cream on top. O-M-G!!
There are a ton of locations around Texas, but they are also expanding several locations across the states. If there is one near you... I would highly recommend it!


It's always fun to share new types of food and places to eat whenever our parents are in town. They don't tend to venture out too much on their own and it makes us so happy when we find something they really enjoy.


Are you interested joining #3TT? Please visit the hosts: Salma, Raj, or Nisha's blog, for all the details on how to join the linkup. It's a great way to meet some incredible bloggers and share any three things you'd like... the rules are super simple, so be sure to join in!


I'd love to know... Do you have some new food/restaurant recommendations?

Rock-a-bye Baby Shower

This past Saturday our family celebrated the newest addition to our family... he will be making his big debut very soon!

I really had such a great time working on this shower for my sister-in-law and brother-in-law. Us four are the only family living here in Dallas, so we had tons of people flying in from all over. We had family coming from California, Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia. Besides the two set of parents (soon to be grandparents) the rest of the family was coming for a very short weekend trip. I wanted to make sure majority of all the decorations and prep work was done way in advance so that we would be able to spend time with everyone and really enjoy a stress free weekend. I think the soon to be parents were really happy with how the entire shower turned out.  Here are a few highlights.

The theme of the shower was picked by my SIL. They knew they were having a baby boy, so she searched on pinterest and was immediately drawn to this "Rock-a-bye Baby" theme. Since my brother-in-law has a strong music interest and is a genius on the guitar, I think this was the perfect theme for their co-ed shower.

Once we knew the theme we just ran with it! We found a lot of inspiration from pinterest. The party was mainly being organized by myself and BIL's sister - Heena. Since she was all the way in California and I am in Dallas, so we formed a pinterest board to share ideas. We decided the best way to keep us both involved in the process was to divide up the tasks.  I was in charge of the decor and cake table and she was in charge of all the games and activities for the party. It worked out really well.

This was a pretty large baby shower with about 55 people. So, we hosted it at a small hall adjacent to an Indian restaurant. It was perfect because we didn't have to worry about catering the food over to another location and since the main courses were taken care of, we could concentrated our attention on the best part... the deserts and goodies for the cake table! :)

For the entry table we set up pictures from the baby announcement shoot and shower gifts on either side. SIL found this idea on pinterest... she pick uped blue mini shower items from Bath and Body Works, tied them up together with a blue ribbon and added a cute note that stated.. "From our shower to yours". In the middle we placed an old record with silver sharpies for the guest to sign. We had the invitation printed in a circular shape, cut it and stuck it on the center of the record. I love this idea because after the shower, I think this will perfect to place in a shadow box and add it to the baby's room as cute wall decor piece. 

  

These are the center pieces Chirag and I made for the shower. The inspiration for these came from this pinterest picture. I improvised quiet a bit. 

I had Chirag cut out these guitar from recycled cardboard boxes. I then spray painted them black, added some blue card stock paper for the insert of the guitar and painted the guitar string with white 3-D paint pens. I wasn't sure how to make them stand up in the middle of the tables. Chirag and I both put our heads together and we decided to use cake pop sticks. At first, I thought we would have to glue them and I didn't like that they would show in the back, but the cardboard was actually slightly thick and we were able to just slit a little hole and push them threw the middle. Next, we bought these black buckets and used regular canned food items and glue the cake pop sticks to the cans. We placed them in the buckets and just hid the canned items with some shred we bought at the dollar store. Next, we added some balloons and used these records we bought at Half Price Books for about 0.30 cents each and placed the buckets on them. Lastly, we sprinkled some confetti that says "It's a boy"... and the tables were all done! :)

This was the gift table. I wanted to share this because the guitars also looked super cute if you just placed them in a simple stemmed water glass with black napkins to hold the cake pop sticks. If I had only know it was this easy... I may have skipped the buckets all together. 

 

The Price is Right Game

Name That Baby Food Game

These were the tables we set up for the two different games we played. In addition to these, we also played 4 other games. We played a "baby" word puzzle game (similar) and "Pregnancy - How Sweet" matching game, "Hurry... I gotta Pee Game", and "Who's Traits Should the Baby Inherit" Game. For the last two, I don't have a direct link so I can try my best to explain. 

"Hurry... I gotta Pee Game": We had 4 men place a balloon under their shirt, then they had to place a quarter in between their knees. The object of the game was to run from one end to the other and drop the quarter in a bucket... just like a pregnant women is hurrying to go pee. It was a lot of fun to watch the men do this. 

"Who's Trait Should the Baby Inherit": We had my SIL and BIL sit in chairs facing their backs to the guests. They were given the signs to see above that say "Mommy" one side and "Daddy" on the other. Then we would read out a certain trait or characteristic that the baby would inherit from their parents... i.e: Who's nose should the baby have? or Who's musical talent should the baby have? Then the parents would raise their sign and vote for either the Mommy or the Daddy. The winner would be based upon the majority voted by the guests. If the guests said Mommy's nose and if they both picked Mommy they both would get a point. 

Lastly, here is the close-up of the cake table. I ordered the black fringe curtain, musical note decals, mini-popcorn boxes and blue and white swirl lollipops from Oriental Trading. We placed the lollipops in two black bucket with Styrofoam to make them stand up. I made chocolate covered pretzel sticks with candy melts from Micahel's , placed them in Mason jars and added a cute sticker with an "S" for Baby Sudra. In the middle we added Oreos because they looked like little records to me and in the center of course was this incredible cake. My SIL had it especially designed and made from a local baker. It really turned out better than I could have ever imagined. 

After weeks of preparation, I'm so glad that Avani and Ashish loved all the little details of the shower. They really had a blast and that makes me so happy! And I hope this gave you some inspiration, in case you are expecting a new addition to your family soon too!

I'm so excited and happy to be a mami (aka aunt) and looking forward to meeting Baby Sudra very soon! :)

What is your favorite part of the decor?