Thank you Intex Appy Festive Offer! #IntexAppyOffer

It's that time of the year when the festivities are in full swing, whether shopping or taking a holiday with the family. It's also that time of the year, when it's all about giving and receiving. 

I had a couple of trips lined up, and I usually book using apps like GoIbibo. And I was looking at gifting a smartphone to my mom, as hers is kind of on the dying stage. And it was the best thing ever, when I heard about the Festive offer by Intex.

So basically if you buy an Intex Aqua Ace, Aqua Star II (16GB), Aqua Stars, Aqua Star 4G, Aqua Young, Aqua Super, Cloud 4G Smart or Cloud Swift you can avail festive offers across many apps like GoIbibo, Amazon, Saavn, Freecharge etc. 

I was really amazed because the Intex phones themselves cost less than 10K, so getting offers much more than that (plus an amazing budget smartphone), what more could I ask for!

And once you download the app, you can avail the discounts! So I downloaded the Goibibo app from my mom's new phone right away, and we got promotional GoCash worth Rs.7,000 which was about the same value as the phone itself (Gocash valid for 90 days). Woohoo!

And we were looking at Booking hotel rooms in Goa for an upcoming trip, and were able to buy rooms worth Rs.26,000/- for (believe it or not) Rs.13,750 thanks to a GoIbibo discount coupon plus the GoCash we just received.

I'm so thrilled that I could make the best out of the purchase, it's like killing two birds with a stone. Now my mom can be super thrilled, for her upcoming family vacation where she can take amazing selfies with her new Intex phone! And I'm happy to because I got the discount on the hotel and now I can spend more on shopping, eating and drinking. ;)

If you're excited about this then hurry and get your Intex Appy Festive offers today as the offer is live only till January 2016. Don't loose this amazing opportunity with #IntexAppyHours. 

Customize your life! #CustomMadeHappiness

I have always been a creative, art and craft loving, DIY person. All through my childhood, school and college days my pass time used to be painting, drawing, knitting, making cards, paper quilling, baking and more. But now I'm a working mom with a one year old, so basically getting time to breathe itself feels like luxury. But that doesn't mean by love for cool stuff decreases, hence, enter  www.icustommadeit.com

This is an one of a kind portal, where you can buy customized gifts and merchandise for yourself or your friends and family, ranging from custom jewelry, clothes, shoes, accessories and a lot more. And if you're someone who makes such things, you can tie up and sell your goodies here and earn! I wish this portal was there when I was making stuff. Maybe it would've become my sole business today.

Anyways, the process is pretty straight forward, and the iCustomMadeIt team goes out of their way to make sure there are no issues with your order. I gave forever wanted to paint my own canvas shoes, but I never got to doing that. So when I saw really awesome ones by Jugaad Factory on the website, I totally wanted to gift myself a pair for Diwali!

You can select one of their designs and customize them, or you can ask to make one from scratch. I had planned on doing the latter, but I stumbled upon their comic strip design, and it was love at first site.

I love Archie comics and these looked like they were made for me. So I went ahead and ordered those. Once you place the order, www.iCustomMadeIt.com confirms it and calls you to understand what you want, if you need any customization. Then the order has to be accepted by the makers. I really loved the fact how equal importance is given to both the buyer and seller, and just because the buyer wants something, doesn't mean the seller has to do it. Once Jugaad Factory accepted to create my custom product, now the wait started.

Mind you, these are not off the shelf products that you place order and can be shipped the next day and be in your hands within the week. These are creations made for you, according to your requirements, so patience is must. I can empathize with this coz I have been a creator myself and I know how much hard work goes into making something. 

The original design had the initial R on it, which I requested to change to A for Avantika (And Archie), and Jugaad Factory gladly accepted my request. 

 

 Within ten days, a couple of days before Diwali, a package arrived and my super-cool new kicks were here! They looked totally awesome, like any prize possession should be. In fact for the first couple of days I was so skeptical to even wear them, afraid that someone will spoil them. Ha-ha.

The canvas shoes selected were quite heavy, so I cannot say that they're the most comfortable pair of shoes I own, but nevertheless, how cool they look makes up for that. I'm not sure if these are waterproof, but I'm assuming that like any normal canvas shoes, they're not. So I ought to be a little cautious about the fact. These cost me Rs.3750/- and if you understand the hard work that goes behind it, you'll be glad to pay the price. Imagine getting your favourite sports team or comic character or anything else painted on them! How cool would it be to flaunt them.

 

What I love the most is the fact that when you order something from www.iCustomMadeIt.com, you buy something that is unique. There is just one of those in the entire world, and never ever will you bang into someone who is wearing the same thing! (Which is quite possible with things you buy otherwise from the common brands and their never ending sales). 

I hope I have roused enough curiosity in you to go check the portal for its wide offerings! Do comment away and tell me how you found my cool new sneakers to be!

Maybelline New York's White Super Fresh Compact Powder - Review

Last month, a cute lil package arrived, and it contained this new compact by Maybelline New York - White Super Fresh Compact Powder.

I already was using another compact by Colorbar, but what that basically did was remove the oil. The Maybelline White Super Fresh claimed that its a 12 hour perfecting compact which helps you stay fresh, fair and always in control! 

It's perfect for a Girl On The Go just like me and I'm sure I was going to love it.

The most amazing part is the timely arrival of this product, because after that, within the same month I had a lot of work related travel to Bengaluru, Surat and a weekend getaway to Lonavala. And the White Super Fresh compact made sure I had my game on, wherever I went! 

I hate carrying a truckload of makeup in my bag, and am a minimalistic person who would just want a Kohl, lip-balm/lipstick, blush and compact. I can't handle the stress of eyeliners, eyeshadows, concealers, foundations, mascara etc (those are fine for parties and weddings etc).

Believe it or not, with this new compact, I had no need for a foundation or concealer. It blends into the skin easily, immediately removing away the oil, giving a instant white, fresh look. And it really stays, my face did look fresh all through the day. Just one point here is, be careful to choose the shade that matches your skin tone, or else you'll end up looking like a ghost or really odd.

Some contacts get dry or make patchy flakes on the skin, this one did not do that at all. It feels awesome to have something so 'compact' in your bag, so that you're always ready. So even if I have to go for some urgent meeting, I'm prepared, all I need is 5 mins in front of a mirror (which by the way, the White Fresh compact already has.)

Oh and did I tell its just for rs.150? Maybelline's products are usually always light on the pocket so that even if you're a college girl, you can totally afford it.

One thing that I did not completely love is the swab that comes along with it, I felt it to be a little hard and rough, and I think it could've been of a better quality, at least a little softer.

So to round up, how does White Super Fresh stand out compared to all you other compact powders?
- It lasts up to 12 hours.
- No dabbing, washing or touch-ups necessary.
- Keeps you fresh and fair throughout the day.
- Absorbs sweat and doesn't let your skin get patchy.
- Available in 3 shades for your skin tone: Pearl (Light to Medium), Shell (Medium) & Coral (Medium to Dark).

Get yours today!

Meet the #ChampInCity! Nexus 5X - A review.

Around last week, this beautiful gadget came home. The all new LG Nexus 5X. I was completely and entirely excited because I have used the Nexus 4 for 2 years and I completely loved the journey, jumping to the Nexus 6, which unfortunately turned out, not the best phone for me. So, having the history I had with the Google Nexus, I was game.

The phone is a sleek, really lightweight gadget with a classy back finish. I really love the mint colour version they have, but the black is great too. It was so light that for a second I was wondering is the battery still in the box. :P I couldn't wait to open it and try it's features out!

Though I mainly got the phone to click pictures around my city, Mumbai, I also am later going to talk about it's features and my verdict.

If you follow me on Twitter/Instagram/Facebook, you must have seen my updates as I took images from different parts of my city, but if you missed them, here are a few I love:

Low Light - Night View from home. 

Day light - View from work (Vidhan Bhavan, Mumbai on the left).

The magnificent lifeline of Mumbai - CST Station from outside.

The BMC Office, Mumbai

3 Monkeys - An Installation in near home - Edited on Layout for Instagram (No Filter)

Panorama at The Li'l Flea

Selfie - Front Camera - At the Li'l Flea

Took this video just to test the new Boomerang app by Instagram.

 I loved all the images I captured from this phone, the shutter time is improved from the Nexus 6, the front camera gives awesome results as you can see above. And most of these are not even on HDR+ on.

Now, talking about rest of the features-

What I love-

1. Built - The phone weighs 136gms which is quite a contrast from my existing 180gms Zenfone 2 Deluxe. The 5.2" display is simply perfect to use with one hand, the way phones were meant to be.

2. Nexus Imprint - The fingerprint sensor is finally here! I remember that they were going to get it in the Nexus 6 too, but because of whatever reason, rolled that phone out without one. The fingerprint sensor works fabulously, unlocking the phone in a jiffy, and is smartly placed at the back of the phone. In the beginning, I kept randomly unlocking the phone just for the fun of it. And I kept teasing my husband, that my phone costs half than your iPhone 6S, and has the same feature. :P

3. Marshmallow - Yeah, I do love the candy, but the  LG Nexus 5X runs on pure Marshmallow Android 6.0, which is intuitive in nature and learns your habits as you keep using the phone.

4. Battery - The battery, on moderate wifi and data usage, lasts all day long. And if required, turning on the battery saver mode will make your phone run a couple of hours more after it's already gone down to less than 14%. I actually was travelling alone at midnight, once with the battery low, and thank God this worked for me, I would have travelled in tension. The phone also charges pretty quickly, less than half an hour, and you're sorted.

5. Overall Performance - The Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 808 processor, 1.8 GHz hexa-core 64-bit makes the phone a beast when it comes to performance or speed, none of the apps I tried lagged or hung ever, and every day was smooth as butter! Internet works fast, both on wifi and 4G too, I was such a happy person.

What I didn't-

1. The type-C charger is still very new, rolled out only 2-3 phones yet, so till it doesn't become common, it'll be a trouble to get chargers, cables, power-banks easily. I had to carry my own charger everywhere I went. But that will change with time, I'm sure. One has to evolve with time, and evolution was never easy.

2. The back of the phone is a smooth non-plastic finish, but it catches fingerprints everywhere, specially if your hands are a little oily. And removing that is a task.

3. I really wish they rolled this phone out with an expandable micro-sd memory slot and double tap to lock feature (unlocking is great with the Nexus Imprint, but to lock you have to use the power button). These two things would make a big difference for me!

Overall, it's priced around 32K, which is a nice change from the 45K MRP Nexus 6. And from my personal experience, I absolutely loved my Nexus 4, which also was manufactured by LG and now am in love with the 5X, so I guess Google & LG should definitely work together!

Thank you Blogadda & LG, for the amazing experience, looking forward to many more!

#ExpressYourself with FREECULTR

I have been a registered member of Freecultr since quite sometime, even bought a couple of cool T-shirts from there. But never ever though in my wildest dream that I would have my own Freecultr Store!

But Blogadda kind of challenged and motivated me to try doing that. It's pretty simple to open a store, you just need to give your store a name, description and if you're feeling extra creative, give it a custom cover; that's it! Setting up my store http://www.freecultr.com/store/jillofalltrades was rather simple.

The thrilling and challenging part comes next, making designs or uploading photos. Most of the photos I have are either personal, or not high-res or good enough to make as T-shirts. So I chucked that option out, and decided to upload designs.

I have done a course on graphics and animation in my college days, so had a few projects that I had worked on earlier. So I went ahead and uploaded them.

It's pretty straight-forwarded. Upload a jpeg (No PNG accepted) according the image guidelines, place it as per the T-shirt and publish!

I did have a few hiccups on the way, many designs got rejected for ample reasons like copyright infringement (when I used a mustache design), or dominant white background, or not matching upto some other image guidelines. But after a little bit of trail and error, I figured the way out and managed to upload 5 designs I really love.

The best part is, not only do you get to feature your art, talent and designs, you get to earn on them! You can choose the selling price of each T-shirt you upload and then after the basic charges by Freecultr are deduced i.e. Rs.400, whatever you have put, you earn the amount. Eg, if you choose to sell a T-shirt for Rs.500, you get Rs.100 for every T-shirt sold, and Rs.500 if you decide to sell a T-shirt for Rs.1000! And if your designs are good, they are bound to get sold by the dozen! I'm excited to know when my first designed T-shirt sells!

Take a look at the designs on my store, I shall be adding more soon!

Do let me know your honest thoughts on the designs! And if you love any, go ahead and buy, none of them are for more than INR500. And if you want to request any particular design, I shall definitely try to oblige in the next set. :)

Fight Dengue today!

Normal people are scared of ghosts and spirits. But me, I am more scared of these devils known as “mosquitoes”. These blood sucking parasites have no heart, they do not see whether they’re biting a child or a pregnant lady. Whether it’s a poor person who dies of Dengue or whether it is someone who is very cleanliness-friendly but by chance happened to visit the garden every morning. The very thought of something happening to my baby boy frightens me, and every time I see the nasty bites on his hands or legs, I am so angry!

I believe not everyone is aware of how deadly mosquitoes can be, spreading life-threatening diseases like Malaria and Dengue. I use life-threatening and not life-taking because fortunately there are medicines and cures for these. But there was a time when there was no cure, years ago, and millions have helplessly died.

Today, we are blessed to live in an era where we have access to the best facilities, medicines, knowledge, technology etc.

You must have definitely seen this TVC- 

Payal is the depiction of a child who is worried and wants to do something to change the future of her family, friends, classmates etc. If we start incorporating small changes in our daily routine like closing windows in the evening, not having any stagnant water in our balcony, near home or in the society, dumping garbage properly, using mosquito-repellants like All-Out, maintaining overall cleanliness and visiting the doctor immediately on first signs of dengue; then we will be able to save a lot of lives. Here are a few symptoms you need to watch out for:

FEVER – around 40°C

WEAKNESS – intense fatigue

HEADACHE

PAIN IN THE BODY – behind the eyes and joints

RED SPOTS ON SKIN

Visit http://www.fightdengueforyourfamily.in to get more information on how can you protect yourself and your family from Dengue. That’s not all, you can even simply give a miss call on 1800180181818 to support the cause or know more.

Remember the old but meaningful saying, prevention is better than cure. And Dengue mosquitoes come in the morning, so make sure you and your family are wearing fully covered clothes, applying repellants or switching on the All-out machine even in the morning!

Big Magic by Elizabeth 'Liz' Gilbert

Let me start by telling you'll that I took quite some time to finish reading this book. Not because it was boring, or the vocabulary was too difficult for me, or any other such reason; but because every few pages I was inspired to think creatively and as and when ideas came flowing to me, I closed the book and started taking notes.

The title "Big Magic - Creative living beyond fear" may elude you to think that this is a book only creative people should read, but no, this is a book any body can and should read because there is creativity flowing everywhere, anyone who's receptive to it can get some!

I absolutely loved the way this book flows, not chapter wise but incident wise. I have obviously read 'Eat, Pray, Love and seen the movie, both, and loved 'em. So was excited to read another book by the author. It's wonderful to know her journey, thoughts, failures, motivations, highs and more.

And I had a kinda personal connect to this book, because I for one, have been wanting to write a book since a few years now, and a couple of times it has happened that a concept or theme came into my mind, but I did not put in much of an effort or any time to it, and after some time, the idea left me. So yes, I totally get it!

I also love the fact that people HAVE geniuses and are not GENIUSES themselves. I won't reveal a lot more, would prefer if you guys read the book yourself.

Synopsis-

Readers of all ages and walks of life have drawn inspiration and empowerment from Elizabeth Gilbert’s books for years. Now this beloved author digs deep into her own generative process to share her wisdom and unique perspective about creativity. With profound empathy and radiant generosity, she offers potent insights into the mysterious nature of inspiration. She asks us to embrace our curiosity and let go of needless suffering. She shows us how to tackle what we most love, and how to face down what we most fear. She discusses the attitudes, approaches, and habits we need in order to live our most creative lives. Balancing between soulful spirituality and cheerful pragmatism, Gilbert encourages us to uncover the “strange jewels” that are hidden within each of us. Whether we are looking to write a book, make art, find new ways to address challenges in our work,  embark on a dream long deferred, or simply infuse our everyday lives with more mindfulness and passion, Big Magic cracks open a world of wonder and joy.