Under the weather :(

It is unusually cold in Gurgaon this week...

Ideal time to catch those 'elusive' viruses and bacterias

Hang on a second...

Is viruses and bacterias grammatically correct?

I mean, are they the words..

...That remain the same

whether singular or plural?

I will find out

When my dearest unwell laptop recuperates!

Yes, all this cold has not affected me

But my laptop is down with some virus

And hence the absence from posting

My laptop plans to return from its sick leave

In another day or two

And that's when I will be back too!

You take care meanwhile....

[and I hand over Mr. Shaking Head's laptop back to him before he wears out the floor by his anxious pacing! Apparently, "I can't handle sophisticated equipment like laptops"!!]

Bahut Shukriya...

... Katie, Bronwyn, Selya and BudgetCasa for showing love to An Indian Summer Bazaar!

Striped stole in the winter sun, on my favorite rug, with my favorite flower

Striped stole: Available in the bazaar

Favorite Rug: Similar can be made available

Winter Sun: Priceless
:-)

The current lot of goodies are available for another 5 days. Make sure you have picked up what you like before the bazaar closes to prepare for next month!

[Bahut Shukriya means Many Thanks!]

As straight as it gets

I am setting up my home office [fancy name for work table ;-)], and have recently picked up furniture very similar to images below. This place, where I picked up my desk and rest, is quite interesting. While they source and restore old and antique furniture from the corners of the country, they also custom make straight line contemporary furniture with wood that has been treated to look old! The result is quite must-buy-licious!

And as I set up my work place, I might as well pick up something for nap place...

(interieurs)

Ofcourse, I also need a new rug, a lamp, a pen/paint brush holder, chair cushions...among other things before I can start 'working' ;-)

I will share the pics of my home office when it is ready!

[Psst: Let me know if you like the kind of furniture as shown above, or old Indian furniture...am planning to debut small furniture pieces in next month's bazaar! Email me if there is something specific you would like)

I Heart @ Bazaar...

The bazaar has been up for five days now, and is getting a steady, good response :-)

Readers, shoppers and fellow bloggers, have shared appreciation, suggestions, encouragement...hearing from all of you has meant a lot to me. Thank You once again!

And a special thanks to Erinn, nay-k, Jo and Kim, Joanna, Linda, Barb, Shelly for giving a special spot to the bazaar on their beautiful blogs ~ Gracias ladies!

Today, I thought I'll share with you some of my personal favorites in the bazaar...

[From left to right- Code: D25-26; D06-07; P12; P13; D15; P21]

I would love to hear what do you heart @ bazaar! :-)

Random/Weird...Me?

I owe this post to Bronwyn [of the fabulous Smoke and Ochre] for quite some time now. She tagged me to list '7 random and/or weird things about myself, and I thought...only 7?!! I can come up with a good laundary list of these things! ;-)

So, here goes!


I can not stand the 'Arial' and the 'Times New Roman' font. Especially 'Arial'. People who have worked with me for some time know that any document they send me for review, will get back to them with its font changed!

My signature is not consistent. There have been multiple times when I had to write a new cheque just because my signature came out to be so different that the bank rejected the last one. Things that impact my signature: kind of pen, surface I am signing on, my mood...



I like Cerelac. Love it actually. Ofcourse, I am in no way close to being a toddler right now...if I had been, I would have been quite a prodigy...writing a design blog at the age of 1! ;-)

There are two things that I do when I am stressed. One: I clean. Anything and everything I can lay my hands on. And Two: I shop :)

I have a mental block against day to day Maths. I can easily strategize about financial models, understand corporate balance sheets etc; but can not calculate 15% off on a Rs.3500 duvet cover. I call my husband to find out the final discounted price. He had an advanced calculator installed in his brain when he was a child

This weird fact is according to my 'aforementioned husband': He thinks that every night, I use enough moisturizer on my hands to nicely moisturize an elephant. That, ofcourse, is not true. I do have soft hands though... ;-)




The latest random but nice fact is that I have taken a sabbatical from work [after 6.5 years in the same company] to spend some time doing non-corporate work. Like write about design, shop for and run the bazaar, maybe do a couple of interior design projects, travel, learn pottery etc. It feels weird at times, to have moved out of my comfort zone...but most of the other times it feels quite nice :-)



--Thanks for tagging me, Bronwyn!

Getting ready for final launch today...

First of all, a huge THANK YOU for the amazing response to the bazaar! I am overwhelmed by all the lovely emails and comments you have sent me...It truly feels like I have opened shop for my friends, and not an unknown virtual world :-)

The update for today is:

The bazaar would go offline from 11:00a till 4:00p IST. I will use this time to ready the bazaar for the final opening. From 4:00p IST (that is + 5.30 hrs GMT), you can start buying from the bazaar!

-------------------------------------------------

*Happy Shopping!* The bazaar is live now!

An Indian Summer Bazaar is Live!

With a lot of pleasure

anticipation and excitement

I invite you to the soft launch of

An Indian Summer Bazaar

Click on the link above or on the left sidebar to travel to the bazaar

And do tell me how you like it! :-D

This is Bazaar Reporting Sir. And Maam!

Update [4:00p IST]:

Well, the quick update is that after finally posting everything on the bazaar site [its a wordpress blog], and doing a quick UAT, I found out that a lot of pictures are not visible!! I can view them as the author, but others can't view them! :(

Appreciate your patience hugely as I figure this out! And, if there are any wordpress experts out there- Help!

............................................


Hello!

Right now, as of this very moment, I am working very hard [I'll be modest some other time ;-)] to get the bazaar ready for today evening (ie evening India time). I know a lot of you are clicking on the bazaar link but can't get into the site...that is because I am working on it right now and have disabled access.


Please come again in another 3-4 hours and voila! the bazaar would be open!


See you then! Back to hard work now!

Psst...Sneak Preview of the Bazaar!

The bazaar is finally coming to town!

Quick preview of some of the goodies you can buy from the bazaar

The Good News:

I am getting closer to completing all the prep required to get An Indian Summer Bazaar online and running :-). Some %^&* logistics still need to be closed, for which my fingers and toes are all crossed and I am touching every piece of wood I can lay my hands on [while my best half works to figure them out]!

If everything goes as per plan, and the Gods smile, and the birds sing, and all the good stuff happens, the bazaar will go online at 2p IST on Jan 15th! (yippee and yips!)

The Not So Great News

I am still waiting for the ^%&* licence that will allow me to sell within India. Can you imagine it is easier (relatively) to set up to transact outside India than within India! So, unfortunately, my fellow countrymen and women will have to wait for next month's bazaar :(

What to expect in the bazaar?

1. I have handpicked unique items straight from the craftsmen for the bazaar :) My bit towards Fair Trade

2. For the soft launch tomorrow, I have products under furnishing, wall art, decor knickknacks and some interesting items for personal use. You will get a chance to browse leisurely through the products tomorrow...the bazaar will start accepting orders from Jan 16th

3. Each item is unique, which means that I don't have a ready mass stock for any one item. The first person to place an order will be the lucky buyer. You will find simple and clear instructions on 'how to' on the bazaar site

4. I will ship every Tuesday and Friday, in lots, to be able to get better shipping rates for you :)

5. The bazaar site and operations are quite simple (that means non high-tech!) and personally handled right now. That means no shopping cart right now... but all payment and shipping is secure and trackable

6. Want something and didn't find it on the bazaar? No worries! Just drop in a request form to your *Personal Shopper* (i.e. Moi!), and I will help you procure that special product :)

Have a question or a suggestion? Drop in a comment! :-)

And then Ivanhoe said...

My dear Masha, you paint so well!

Adorable water colors from Masha D'yans who is originally from Russia, and now stays in the US. She is a professional graphic designer, and loves to paint and illustrate

She also has a product line of cards, bedding, T-shirts and prints!

Cathoe says:

"I so agree with you Ivanhoe!"

Find more of Masha's beautiful work here

Take a deep breath and...

Be Calm.

I need to do some deep breathing
and, Relax.

As I frantically try to set up everything for the bazaar
New bottlenecks come up
While my explorer runs some god forsaken thing called active scripts
and nicely jams up my internet

If I had my way
I would turn all the red tape in the world to green tape
Don't know if that would help too much
But at least it would be green...
...and eco friendly

Totally random. I know.
This burst of randomness happens
when I am very happy
or very stressed

What calms me
is
looking at images like these

Coz, I too have white couches
And through these images
I appreciate their future potential

Where am I headed
If I feel calm
By looking at nicely done interiors

Wherever it is
The one consolation I have is
That at the least, the place would be
Aesthetically pleasing

Ha!

[some of my favorite images from Marie Claire]

Rainbow colors for 2008!

I wish 2008, for all of us, is:

V ibrant

I nteresting

B ountiful
G reen
Y outhful
O ptimistic and

R ewarding

Hope to see and hear a lot from all of you in this new year! :-)


[images from Marie Claire, Mads, Mediterranean Lifestyle]

Pretty Pretty

I just couldn't resist these charming patterns from Galbrith & Paul. Reminds me of spring and early summer!

Do check out their site for more designs and for custom designing of rugs!