Welcome home

Welcoming our new family member home - who is such an important part of our lives.
After ten days of struggle, sending back two defective pieces, this good fella is here finally!
Don't you just love the paisley design?

Cuddles

Lots of them...before leaving him with the baby sitter for a Sunday evening out with the hubby and the visiting bro in law :)

[Self photograph, inspired by Sig]

Brightening up our mornings

We are both morning people
Waking up early, shower and ready to take on the day...
Whoever is first to shower, lights the lamp and some incense sticks on the altar

I wonder if we feel so good about it as we've always seen our grandparents / parents do it as we were kids, and following the family traditions makes us feel good in some way

One last stick remaining from this fabulous fragrance we bought at Auroshikha, Besant Nagar, Chennai. This has been brightening our mornings, filling it with positive vibrations and making us look forward to a great day ahead. These sticks have natural resins from Tulsi (Holy Basil), Tangerine and Orange, and I loved the packaging too!

Mahashivaratri & the Saras Exhibition

 

Though we did a couple of other fun things yesterday like visiting a regional products exhibition and eating super-oily take-away food - this seemed to be my favourite picture of the day - the red Geraniums contrasting the beautiful black of the Nataraja.

My favourite stall from the Saras exhibition was one called the Guntur-Coop run by the rural women in Guntur where they prepare Andhra style pickles, snacks and other food products in a very hygienic way and packaged beautifully too. Take a look at their pickles below - the Gongura is for S, while the other two are my favourites.

 

They are doing some great work and I really wanted to showcase their quality products here, hence the second photo of the day :) Will amend their address and details shortly. If you are visiting Guntur, their food products are surely worth picking up!

My shopping bag from the exhibition had stuff from different corners of India and this is what I love about such exhibitions-

Kerala

Plantain chips fried in coconut oil

Jackfruit chips

Mace

Gujarat

Clay tava

Clay pot with lid

Guntur

Three pickles

One bag of Chekkalu

Anantapur

Bedside lamp with hand-painted lampshade

Madhya Pradesh

Lemon drops

Dried mango chooran

Imli chooran

Assam

Handwoven woolen jacket for Atri

Jaipur meets Jodhpur

Hung up

We picked this beautiful mirror from Auroshikha and it was sitting in its four layers of packaging since two months. I've been so wanting to hang it and admire its beauty and its time finally came yesterday :)
Afterthought : Actually two months is not much - some of the stuff has been lying around for years without reaching its final destination, at least this one made it :)

From eBay to our home

 

This Jodhpuri bed and pair of side tables that we ordered from eBay finally fitted with the mattress today! A king-size bed to sleep on - now only if Atri would let me sleep undisturbed all night :)

Block-printed and hand embroidered bedsheet from Gurjari and cusion covers from Fabindia complete the ethnic look.

Sweet light

West Bengal's glazed terracotta diffuser - spreading the fragrance of jasmines in the morning air. Inspired by A to start using it, as the numerous bottles of essential oil are fast evaporating sitting in the cupboard!