Deepika Blogs…

B Present…

It’s going to sound so lame but this is something which has stuck with me. And it came from a movie!

Rumor Has It http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0398375/

Trust me I am not going to go preachy on you especially when I haven’t blogged in about 6 months! But just this morning as I was thinking about starting to write again I thought I’ll begin with this post.  I am guilty of not being “present” most of the time. Think about it. We’re either living in the past (oh those good ‘ol days) or in the anticipation or excitement of the future. But rarely ever in the present.

Gagan and I used to fight all the time when I would insist on taking photos of everything and everywhere I went. My argument “I want to be able to re-live this”. He’d say “But you’re missing it now!” Of course back then I would never agree with him but I do now 😉

And in this era of living VERY public lives (thanks to Facebook) we’re almost always living in the future when we take photos every second of the day to “share” later. In the last few events I’ve attended I’ve actually made a conscious effort to NOT do this and let me tell you it was not easy at first, but it was liberating! I didn’t care how I looked, I was just having fun with people I love. I was present. What a concept right? Then I started thinking… when am I ever present? I suppose one of the few times I am actually present is when I am spending time with my munchkin – Dia and I would not trade that for anything in this world. So I am going to end this on a positive note and go home and “BE PRESENT”

SAD Its that time of the year again…

When the days are starting to get shorter and winter starts to set in. Among the many other things winter brings with it, for me, one of the things I struggle with every year is SAD ( seasonal affective disorder).  And no amount of lighting works for me and over the years I’ve realized the only thing which works for me is keeping myself super busy and not watching TV. So I started my “treatment” yesterday with changing the theme of the blog and today I am going to SEW!

I went out with Emily last night and confessed to her about SAD and just talking to her made me feel so much better. She reminded me that I needed to write more as well so I am going to make more of an effort to update the blog.

What about you? Do you have SAD? If so, how do you get out of it?

The Rule of TEN

If you are one of the 10 people who read my blog, you probably already know that I am the founder and president of PatternReview.com, an online sewing community I started 9 years ago. I’ve been asked on multiple occasions what a typical day working behind the scenes on PR looks like. I never quite know how to answer that because the truth is, I don’t know! Each day brings with it many things, sometimes expected and many times totally unexpected and out the blue which catch me off-guard. But that is the joy of running a community.

One e-mail or a phone call can completely change the way the rest of the day goes but it’s how the world works and I’ve embraced it.

So yesterday when I was feeling especially stressed and drained splitting my energy and focus on many things at once, an email sent to me changed not only my day but the way I think. And so thought provoking were those words, that it made me want to share this with you. Now since it was sent privately to me, I will not quote the sender but I do want to share some of her thoughts.

The sender expressed her enthusiasm about the site (PR) and the joy she gets out of it. She went on to explain her “Rule of Ten” which she has followed for the last 35 years. According to her rule of ten, if she hasn’t expressed her gratitude and appreciation towards a person or an organization she is involved with at least TEN times, she does not allow herself to complain about them even if she feels her complaint is justified.

That e-mail put a pause on my day and my thoughts and I started to think how many complaining thoughts have I had since I woke up? Too many, I am embarrassed to admit.

And I stopped…

We are surrounded by greatness. We just need to learn how to see it. The sender of the e-mail to begin with. And that my friends, is what is so awesome about running PatternReview. While I started the site because I wanted to learn how to sew, over the last 9 years, I have learned way more than how to sew a jacket. And as PR approaches it’s 10th anniversary, I feel grateful, and lucky to have had the chance to learn from so many of you. For learning never stops. Not now, not ever.

10 Items or Less – My List

Gagan and I recently saw this delightful movie 10 Items or Less. The whole movie is a big conversation between Paz Vega (Gorgeous!!!) and Morgan Freeman. I am yet to see a movie which had Morgan Freeman and did not ROCK! Seriously I LOVE ALL HIS MOVIES!

Anyway, so back to the movie…. Just to give you a little background, Paz Vega (remember the housekeeper in Spanglish!) is a checkout girl at a supermarket who mostly manages the “10 items or less lane”…

My favorite part of the movie is when Vega and Freeman are in the car and she asks him, if you had to choose what would be your “10 items or less” in LIFE!

So here are mine. I am not including people in my list simply because I can’t imagine my life without anyone who is currently in it. Here are my top 10 THINGS!

1. My Laptop
2. Blackberry
3. Sewing Machine
4. My Le Creuset Pot
5. My Recipe Books
6. My Pressure Cooker
7. Jalapenos!
8. Milk
9. My Contact Lenses/Glasses (kinda impossible to see without them) 😉
10. and last but the most important of all – PatternReview!

So if you are reading this, what would be your “10 items or less list?”