...

It’s one of those days
when my body and mind succumbs to a lazy spell
no dusting no cleaning simply no thoughts of being useful
want to do nothing but crawl into bed
and just be there all day long
with a book and [perhaps] a pretty pink rose to keep me company

It was an effort to even drag myself to take these pictures. 

On the contrary, something in me couldn’t even resist not capturing this beauty. 

I hope the outcome’s not as dull as my spirits today.

p.s: Sorry for being such a bore and for treating you to this piece of senseless writing.

today's lunch

simple and fulfilling

Pulka, pumpkin with green peas and Gujarati mango chunda 

Pulka is Indian flat bread made from whole wheat flour and is without fat. 

But we love it with just a sliver of butter in our household.

this past week...

...lying in bed

letting the [windswept] curtains stroke my feet

[embracing] the sight of dust flecks dancing to the tune of sunbeams

sweeping past the pages of [an old diary]

watching my mint sprigs [grow] roots in a jar

and

indulging in a [new found] fascination here 

 

…been a bit on the downside of health

Now, mending well  ♡

the living room

I’ve been meaning to briefly tour our modest home with you for some time now.

And today just seems as good a day to begin, I think.

We live in a rented two bedroom apartment in Nashik, Maharashtra, India.

So, what you might not find in our home are beautifully painted walls and a bespoke structure.

No gorgeous furniture either, only hand-me-downs and a few others that were bought second-hand.

But, it’s lovingly decorated with… whites [lots of them], flowers [lots of them too], 

some old things and something’s new [mostly bought at thrift stores and craft bazaars].

My home décor is a reflection of my love for all things handmade; flowers and ferns; 

vintage books; all things wooden and brass; little lamps, candles and fairy lights; 

and white linens with plenty of laces and frills.

Here’s a little glance into the corners of our living room…

Welcome to our sweet nest

The white lantern in the nook is from fabindia, one of my favorite stores

The brass candle holder in the above image is really, a flower vase 

This bigger trunk is my father’s and the small one used to be Mayur’s school
bag in the good old days.

New cushion covers I sew recently

This image gives a wider view of the living room with the entrance door and my little pooja nook
that I call mandir. If you turn towards the other end, you’ll see a make-shift vintage book table
I created to place flowers in that corner.

Here again, I’ve wrapped vintage plain paper, pressed flower and leaf around a cute little nescafe jar

and sat an old silver wick-holder I had, creating a lamp out of it. And that small milk jug I use

for my flowers was bought for only Rs.20 at one of the craft bazaars. Isn't it really pretty?

This is one of the many brochures I have of Golden Chariot -Karnataka Tourism.

They have amazing photographs in them, so it gets displayed on my coffee table occasionally.   

This shows a closer view of the mandir with the gods radha-krishna wearing attires hand-sewn by
me and the details of a vignette I created over a cupboard [you can see in the previous fifth image].

Two vintage copies of the sanskrit epics – Ramayana and Bhagwat Gita, an old kerosene lamp,

a wooden jewelry box that holds all our keys, a stone sculpture of Lord Krishna and a short-story
from Rabindranath Tagore’s book Lipika framed on the wall [to conceal a non-functional switch-board].

Living room with my fairy lights on...
My mother’s old brass pot used as plant holder towards the left and rajasthani puppets just managing
to sneak-in over the right wall.

If you’ll observe carefully, I’ve tried my utmost to decorate with only natural/organic/up-cycled
elements like wood, brass, aluminium, cotton, paper, old kitchen jars and wine bottles.

It makes my sweet nest even more sweeter to me.

Hope you enjoyed this little tour.


Here's the bedroom and the kitchen

♡ ♡ ♡

this love is silent…

T.S. Elliot

Happy Valentine’s Day

Elachi Shrikhand and vintage vignette

Just when I thought winter was bidding us farewell, 

the cold is making its presence felt even more.

Makes me wonder of the places where the snow is deep. 

Pufff…

Wrapping up my nest in some citrusy scent and my days with some bright color.

Elachi Shrikhand [Indian hung yogurt desert] with oranges anyone?

So like Summer  ♡

On another note,

I created this little vignette for our computer table.

What with the cables running [there are at least a dozen of them, can you believe?], hard-drives,
woofers and all things techno, this corner of my home was pleading to be softened down a bit.
Initially, keeping by the feel of our home, I sew up a white linen cover with crochet ribbon trimming
for the wooden table [we’ve been lucky enough to find, so thrifty yet handsome] and placed some

flowers in an old barni [pickle jar]. The result was quiet pleasing. But this pleases me even more and
 I just love the old world charm it surrounds me with. The inspiration is from one of
 Sweet Paul’s Crafty Fridays.It so appeals to me because of the vintage book usage, which I’m
simply smitten with.Sometime soon I will show you the other things I’ve created using

vintage books and papers. But for now, I’ll stick to this vignette.

The lil boy in the left-end picture above is Mayur; next to him are my father and afterward
mayur’s dad. The fish locket is Mayur’s from Goa.

Me and Mayur [it’s just a paper print, still I like], my papa and ma. The silver pocket is an old gift
from a friend and next to it sits a Nepalese coin [my papa is from Nepal, so u know the significance].
I just love the way these vintage pages are tattered here.

This above one is of my mother-in-law [I really like this image of hers very much, maybe it’s the red
bindhi amidst the black and white] and at the back, my papa. A small bundle of cinnamon tied with
cotton yarn, just because…I love.

That Buddha card is something I’ve had since my college days. I don’t exactly remember how
I happened on it, but it’s just so beautiful to me. Yellow pressed leaves are wedged along, blending in
so well.

I’m glad I could assemble all of it together like this. So meaningful, my eyes wander away…

homemade grape jam

Over the weekend, we went on an impromptu bike ride along the highway about 30kms,

towards Saputara, Gujarat. It was peaceful passing through the countryside 

in the late afternoons; taking in the rolling brown pastures 

with a hint of green here and a patch there, marking the arrival of spring.

Huge hills misted by pockets of feathery white clouds over the horizon, the blowing wind 

and just the ideal amount of sunshine pouring over us simply rejuvenated our spirits.

We stopped-over for lunch at a local restaurant that serves some delicious preparations 

with their fresh supply of fishes from a nearby water dam. 

That for the husband of course [who loved the food so much that we got some take-away 

containers home too] and for me, a simple yet tasty potato curry with chapattis. 

On our way back, we were tempted to buy these black lovelies from a little farmer’s bazaar 

over the roadside.  

Therefore, they feature here today.

And yesterday purely on a whim, I decided I wanted to use them to make 

my first-ever batch of homemade jam.

The verdict? 

Utterly lip-smacking!

a saturday afternoon memory

Looks like, winter is slowly taking its leave from my corner of the world.

Even after a bath it feels faintly warm here this afternoon.

So the ceiling fan got switched on…a lil indication that summer’s en-route.

Parents are napping and all is so quiet in my house at this very moment.

The chirruping of the sparrows outside is the only sound filling the otherwise peace.

I wish I could store this [calm] in a jar, like a favorite perfume, 

as keepsake of a Saturday afternoon memory.

Sigh…
 

“She's somewhere in the sunlight strong,

her tears are in the falling rain,

she calls me in the wind's soft song,

and with the flowers she comes again.”

Story People

do you think i'm beautiful?

Some days…I have the mind of a butterfly [fragile], thoughts flutter in the slightest wind
that blows my way. Wings wobble; my insides quiver and the mere desire of flying again
looks like a distant dream. 

But fly [I must].

Slowly am gathering my scattered strength and building up my bundle of [hope] all over.

I know the metamorphosis is going to be quite testing,  so I’m trusting in my faith to see me
through this. 

Are some days like this for you too?

Tomorrow, I just might surprise myself and manage to have a mind of an eagle.

Strong, perceptive and fearless.

In the meanwhile…

“Do you really love me? means, Will you accept me in process?
Will you embrace what is different about me and applaud my efforts to become?
Can I just be human - strong and vibrant some days, weak and frail on others?...
Will you love me even when I disappoint you?...”

Angela Thomas - Do You Think I'm Beautiful?

images of a linen dress I sew last summer

an eternal clear sky beckons

The fragrance of mint lingers in the air, reviving and fresh.
The perfect smell to escort me today as I dust-off
the old pages of my blog and weave anew. 

The absence has been long and the missing even deeper. 

But today as I gaze up the heavens, there’s no more gray, 

only an eternal clear sky beckons…

and this is where you will find me weaving memories with words and 

unfolding the fabric of my life, one twinkling moment at a time.

 

Welcome.

‘The pages are still blank,

but there is a miraculous feeling

of the words being there,

written in invisible ink

and clamoring to become visible.’

Vladimir Nabokov