Wednesday 31 August 2011

Inspired Weekend part 2!


Tissue paper flowers!!!


Light pink dark pink....red!


Yellow, Orange..... red!


Dark blue purple black!


Light blue dark blue darkest blue!


Pretty and bright!


Dark and mystical!!

And then art struck!!!!

Lips!


My favorite!


Could get better huh?!!!

The envelope book is going to come up later!!!!

Inspired weekend!!!

Sunshine has finally beat the rains!!!!

i never knew how much i loved the sun till it came out after five days of absolute gloomy days!!! but to be quite honest.... these last few "rainy" days have strangely brought about a very creative side of me.... I don't know if it was because i couldn't leave the house so i had to do something at home to keep me sane.... yes yes for all the people who know me, I'll bet you'll are thinking that i am home everyday anyways so whats so different about it this time...?!!!

So its like this.... when you know you can get out you don't feel trapped and you don't do anything about it... right....? but when you look out your window and see a mini storm taking place, you make sure you do something or your whole day is going to seem like a waste!!!

I started off with some tissue paper flowers..... apparently kite paper and tissue paper is the same but when you actually buy some international quality tissue paper you'll barf at the homemade kite paper!!!! ha ha ha!!!


Once i had made two flowers in every color i had, I took to painting..... one then another then another!!!! different mediums, different textures... but all so so pretty!!!!!


Once i put down the paint brush i pulled out all things crafty.... my fabrics and papers and ribbons and pearls and fevicol (how i love my fevicol!!!!) and sooooo many buttons!!! So what i made was from this inspired envelope book i found on.... you guessed it... pinterest!! I made my version of it for like a wedding or like a birthday gift where each envelope holds a small gift to be opened each day leading up to the birthday!!

Then i slept!!!

Ha ha!!!

Well i know you'll want to see all of this but unfortunately I'm on my Mum's mac.... so all images will be uploaded super soon!!! tonight hopefully!!!

Till then you can get a sneak peak on my facebook page....

Come back for more!!!!

Thursday 25 August 2011

Real Weddings..... My Wedding Part Two!


So, part two of my wedding!!! how exciting!!

Basically we had two ceremonies, since my husband is a Sikh and i'm a Hindu.... we had the Sikh ceremony in the day and the Hindu one at night. I loved it since i got to wear two wedding outfits!!! yay!!


So this is my husband....on his way to the wedding venue. The Sikh wedding takes place in the Gurudwara, the Sikh temple. Doesn't he look handsome!!!


This is the "Baraat" that is the boys side. Its so much fun... they have this band playing fun music and they dance all the way to the venue.... :) i missed it damn!!


This is me getting ready for the wedding! I was a very calm relaxed bride to be honest.... This was my most favorite look... my friend had done my hair and make up and it was just stunning!!!!


The Sikh wedding ceremony is called "Anand Karaj" which translates to "Blissful Union" Its a very simple and peaceful ceremony. 


The couple takes four pheras or rounds around the Sri Guru Granth Sahib, while the priest explains their duties as a married couple. These are called Lavan Pheras as the priest reads out the Lavan Hymn by Guru Ram Das. The four stanza of the hymn describes the progression of love between a husband and wife which is analogous to that between the soul (bride) and God (the husband). For more information on this ceremony you must visit http://www.sikhs.org/wedding/ they have explained it so well. 


There is something about the silence in the Gurudwara along with the meditative rhythmic chanting of the priests that just touched me.... suddenly i realized it was happening... i was getting married to this incredible boy!! It really was one of those moments when you feel time is standing still and there is nothing.... its just a perfect moment!

I was officially a missus!!!

So by the time the next wedding ceremony was ready to take place I was all the more relaxed and happy! Now nothing mattered!!

The wedding styling was done entirely by me, as were the rest of the ceremonies. Mum and I choose the most beautiful venue called Kanak Vrindavan. It is basically a number of gardens put together and really makes for a very traditional and yet somehow enchanting wedding venue!


I love fabric and i love marigold flowers.... so this mandap was just the perfect combination! Also i wanted it to have a very nice draped look .... i think it worked out just perfect!


This was the entrance to the dinner area.... I love love love elephants!! And i always knew i would have them at my wedding!


I hate typical wedding lights. So i had the decorater just hang these beautiful rice lights in the big trees around the venue. He went one step further and knotted the ends to look like balls of lights, I'm so going to use this idea!!!!


I always hated buffet set ups at weddings. As a kid i remember most Maharashtrian weddings had a sit down lunch where the family of the bride and groom would serve all guests. Since we were in Rajasthan I decided to go with their very traditional sit down layout. Every single family and friend loved it!!!


Lastly as a sweet wedding detail i had a wish tree... I had a friend tie ribbons on a tree with a table below which had pens and note paper. So people would write a little note and tie it to my tree. But since the concept was kind of new here, not a lot of people knew what to do!!! So i have a few wishes... which i turned into a scrap book!

This time the husband came in this beautiful carriage!!!! There was a full on band baja baraat again :)


As for me, no coy bride this time.... i threw a little tantrum in front of my brother about how unfair it was that the groom always came in with full on dance and music and the bride had to come in like she was getting prepped for a slaughter!!!!! So he arranged a beautiful doli for me, as that was tradition, but had all my friends and sisters dance like there was no tomorrow in front of me as i danced in my doli!! The boys side was "Shocked"!!!!!


The Hindu ceremony was a full mash of the Marathi customs the Gujarati customs and the Rajasthani customs!! The Mundawali (string of pearls) is Maharashtrian, both the bride and groom wear it on their foreheads. My two sarees were worn like the Gujarati bride wears, one from her side and one from the grooms side. The Maang tikka i wore was purely Rajasthani!!


I was just pretending to be all demure.... in truth i was soooooooooooo bored!!! there was nothing for the bride to do... everything that had to be done was done by the parents and the groom... now i know why the make the bride dress all pretty... that is all she has to do!!!


I love this picture. Thats my mum's pretty hands applying turmeric to the husbands hands. Its all so pretty and glittery!!!


This was really funny! I bought him a wedding ring at least two sizes too small!! and i insisted on pushing it down his ring finger!!! It was so bad that during dinner all the catering guys actually had to get oil and soap water to get the damn ring off his finger since it was swelling up!!!!!


Post the dinner and once all the guests had left. A few of us cousins hung around with my photographer friend and we took some fun pictures!!!


Coming from the land of Bollywood.... we had to do something overly dramatic!!!


Well that's it.... here ends the wedding.... and my husband and I are off!!


Photogrpaher: Anwesha Mandal
Venue: Sikh Wedding at the local Gurudwara, Jaipur
           Hindu wedding at Kanak Vrindavan, jaipur
Catering: Local caterers
Decoraters: Harshwardhan
Design and styling of wedding: Me and Mum!

Walking home now.....

When is started this blog, it was all about finding myself, finding what it is I was meant to do. After all everyone is here to do "something" right? And everyone spends at least a few months or years trying to figure it out.... in the mean while you do all the other things that come your way...

So what do you do when you figure out what you are meant to do? You do it of course...!! But if you still don't make that cross over... what does that say of you?

Weddings is it. One way or another... and everyone who knows me tells me they really see me doing it rather well infact... but I have still not taken that step. Why? I am not sure.... I suppose sometime you fear the consequences... of finally doing what you want to do... what you were here to do. I mean yes, if i am supposed to be a wedding planner... i will be... but what if i'm not a good one? What if... i start up and no one comes to me to get their wedding done...? What if.... i put myself out there only to come cowering back?! I mean today I can easily say "I can be a great planner a great stylist, I just haven't been given the opportunity" but what about if i were to be given an opportunity? Would i be a great planner?

Hmmmm....  I suppose you can only know if you actually take the plunge.... So here I am ready to take that plunge.... starting today, right now, I am going to get serious about first of getting a job... to help me get into the groove of planning weddings. And then tomorrow, or well at least 2 years later, I'll take it on on my own.

And if the challenge is supposed to be even tougher, and i don't get a job, why then I'll just shout out to everyone I know to pass the word around, that Alishka is here and she is going to plan your wedding just the way you want it!!!!

This was a poem i wrote a few years ago when i was in a similar state of confusion... and it really helped me get my feeling out there....

Hope it helps again!



Walking home now, after all those years…
Getting lost on the way,
Finding God on the way,
Earning respect on the way,
Knowing love on the way,
Loosing hope on the way,
Learning about faith on the way,
Loosing myself on the way,
Missing the point on the way,
Bearing the storms on the way,
Fighting my wars on the way,
Finding friends on the way,
Fighting enemies on the way,
Believing on the way,
Smiling all the way….
All the way home…..
-----alishka-----



Wednesday 24 August 2011

Wednesday Photos!


For today's photo of the week I'm putting up some pictures that i have on my desktop to push me into actually doing something!!!!









Come on.... get off this cushion and go do something!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Wednesday 17 August 2011

Wednesday Photos!

Its really been a while!!!!

I have pulled thru my birthday weekend into a birthday week... and i'm still trying to stretch it into a birthday month!!!!!

but apart from that i have just been extremely uninspired to post a blog.... haven't felt like creating painting making nothing.... its not a good feeling... makes me all confused and lost and directionless....

So for some inspiration for my wednesday photos, i decided to feel some love.... I think nothing inspires you like a warm hug and a body shivering kiss!! So i spent the last ten days stuck to my husband! and we did all sorts of lovely romantic things... coffees and and curling in bed in the middle of the afternoon... planning and actually getting my first ever tattoo... fixing his dreads... movies.... just wanted it to be me myself and the husband!!!

So here are a few images... no not of us!! but images that just inspire "love"!!


What i love most about these few pictures is that they just go to show you how many variations of love there are.... 


The quirky love!


The young love!


The we are together love!


The where ever the road may take us love


The i cant get enough of you love!


The you make me feel tall love!


The fairy tale love!


The sunshine love!

The next three are my favorite kind.... because for me they represent a friendship love which i think is really the best. I strongly believe the lust the passion the "love" could phase out after a few years... but if you start off your relationship based on friendship and fun and being relaxed with each other... you can get thru anything!

So to the best, to the friendship love!!!





Well i feel inspired already!!! with love on my side... i think i can take on anything!!!! 

All images are from my pinterest board "love"!


Tuesday 9 August 2011

Wedding Tips Tuesdays!!!

I feel the most common mistake couples who have been together for a while make is that they start to take each other for granted. You're together more than two years and you feel you know everything you need to know about each other, you have already done "enough" romantic things for each other. courtship period isn't what love is about... its what come after....

I've been with my husband for two wedded years and five dating years... and even today we make sure we don't take each other for granted. Small things like if i make a god meal, he will always compliment it. If he comes home early from work to be with me i will show him that i appreciate it. We go for our coffee dates where no friends are allowed.

When we got married, it was mainly because it was the best option since he was shifting cities and we both knew long distance was not something either of us could handle. So before we knew it the wedding plans were already underway. There was no asking no proposing nothing!

But two days before the wedding he surprised me with the most fantastic wedding proposal ever!!! I'm going to put up those images soon.... just need to sort them out first!!!

His proposal meant the world to me... it was him actually saying "Even though our entire wedding is planned out and ready to go in two days, I still want to "ask" you if you want to be with me" and it felt so so good!!!! To know that it was as important to him as it was to me that we don't just make assumptions for each other!!


So when I found this amazing proposal i just had to share it....

It all started with this simple image:


And i said to myself... hmmmm is this written by a guy?!!! the link added to my curiosity! 


The entire site is a proposal... and please watch the video of the girl seeing it!!! oh so beautiful.... they too seem like they have gone thru much together and for him to take out so much time and effort and to make this.... it just reaffirms that love is really something else!!!!!

Monday 8 August 2011

Happy Birthday Month!!!

 August is my birthday month... the month of the Lion... the Lioness!! I love the big cat more than anything and I'm a super proud Leo... !!!

This post is a tribute to the big cat as well as the small!!!


look at those eyes... you just wanna hug him!!!

majestic!


Now why can't i have a pet like this?


Satisfied!


Babies!!!


awwwwww....


some more awwwwww!!!


one two many?!!!!


love this!


Oh My God cute!!!


yaawwnnnnn!


contemplating!


aaaccckk!!!!


who's going where??!


Peek-a - boo!


yoga!!!


That's actually the most like me... try giving me ribbons you'll see the exact same expression!!!


boxing champ!!


this is like me too!!!!!


love her expression!!!


he ha ha ha ha ha!!!


You turned your head didn't you??!!!


Love!


How graceful!!!!

The Cat.... you can't help but love us!!

all images via my Pinterest account!! go have a look!