The Wonders of Travel

I was amazed to see what Ludhiana could do in my recent trip there for a friends wedding. The fashionable Punjabi women make the most of what is available in seemingly plenty out there - huge pools of talent. Embroidery, dyeing, incredible tailors and a sea of beautiful fabric to choose from as well as gorgeous borders and laces and the list simply never ends ! 

I decided I wanted to get a skirt made - in two days and it happened! I bought a white ''dyeable'' crepe

material and walked across the street to see the guy do this to get me the exact colour that I was looking for.

nothing less. I wanted to share this incredible process with you !

 Wanted to take these back home with me. A mouth watering collection of coloured powders (dyes)

He then adds the colours with great flair into this pot of boiling water

A few minutes later - voila! My gorgeous now bright orange fabric emerges!

And all the water goes down a drain. I shudder to think of the chemical pollution there. 

 Incredible to watch, and I wish I had my own personal dyeing place here as well. I would go crazy and dye all my things ! 

photo credit : Harleen Johar

That would be me, in Punjabi garb :)

Have a great week folks ! much love.

Dance Its Christmas!

Let us dance and sing

And pass on the joy that Christmas brings!

Hope youve had a very merry Christmas and spread some joy! In half an hour Christmas is over and Im glad that despite the madness ( were shifting homes again, woe is me!) I got to see beautiful trees, and meet some lovely people to cheer the spirits today! Much love and many hugs to all of you and your families!

Love is in the Air!

When they say ''love is in the air'' it sounds cheesy, but Ive reason to believe it may be true. 

October started off wonderfully, and Ive been soo excited that septembers over ( not a great month :)

My best friend Bani, from way back in school is getting married. and this came in the mail for me last week 

a gorgeous little bottle with a cork- do you see the silver heart with ''love'' on it? and this lovely message asking me to be her bridesmaid. I was so overjoyed, i wouldve agreed to anything at that point :) 

Isnt it beautiful ? I had to share it, I love it so much!

My very first bridesmaidly duty was to quickly create a ''save the date'' for her ! 

So we used this gorgeous picture of both their hands in the sky, and created a quirky card that Bani felt really reflected their love ! 

I of course, had had to do an illustrated version as well ! :) 

They loved them both, and went with the one above, with blue skies ! 

I was also asked to do another project which I cannot reveal right now, but its along the same lines. everyones proclaiming their love for each other suddenly. Happy to sniff the air and bask in the joy!

Be Loved and Let Love Be 

Castles in the Air

My restlessness was finally soothed the other day, when I heard the first strums of a guitar. The weather was beautiful and this was just what I needed. Im a big sucker for live music, and I ended up sitting at the cafe for hours listening to this guy with a beautiful voice sing some lovely tunes. Alongwith some nice coffee and a borrowed pen + little napkin to sketch on, I was the happiest Ive been in a long while! UB city is beautiful, as twilight set, lanterns came on, everything glowed, the music continued to flow- it was magical and Ive been floating on the calm that set in since then!

I got around to having a quick chat with the magician, found out he has a facebook page - facebook.com/Chandran Acoustic. So you can look him up and find out when and where hes playing next!
Have a good week and weekend :) Much love.

Birthday Hunt for Treasure!

 
This was a little something I created for Siddharth's birthday. I decided to do something fun and slightly different from the usual cake cutting session at midnight, and so the treasure hunt was born :)
The whole thing was fairly simple and uncomplicated, I didnt want him to be searching till the wee hours so kept it as direct as I could.


So I illustrated a map of our home, and drew in the little bits of furniture that were relevant. I hid 10 things in the house, the biggest present of all being on the terrace :) which explains the staircase leading to the clouds that you see in the illustration! and then I penned in the numbers - 1 to 10 next to the area they were hidden in and he had to hunt for them in the sequence that I wanted him to find each present! The very first one was the birthday cap he has on :) Oh and the edges of the map I burned to give it that old feel !


We had soo much fun doing this, it was worth all the time spent planning it.
And the search went on for a whole hour :) I hope you had a great weekend! much love.

The next little treasure was a cake hidden under our dining table :)

                                                                    puzzling over the map

                                              Silly things that you do for love make me smile :)