Store Feature - My Artitude

One bright and sunny day I called up Anita Bora who in addition to doing a whole lot of interesting things, markets her sister's pottery through her brand/store My Artitude. A quick chat and a phone call and a day later I was off to meet Anita and see the latest collection at My Artitude. While the store is generally open from Noon to 7 pm, it is recommended to take an appointment before you go to make sure Anita is around in town and not on one of her trips around the world! She is on one right now :)

The store is located in Defence Colony, Indiranagar, behind Max Mueller Bhavan. It is easy to find, just keep the house number in mind. You will need to find street parking which is ok on weekday mornings. You walk up a winding stair case and enter a room. And for all the pottery and ceramic lovers the sight is akin to paradise! And let me just add while you are here, you can also shop for some jewellery from MoodSwings Jewelry by Benaazir. They share the space. Double motivation to shop!!  What else can one ask for??

The pottery is crafted by Ranjita Bora, Anita's sister. Ranjita works out of Pondicherry. The sisters do travel around the country taking part in exhibitions that they like. You can catch up on their Facebook page for the latest info - facebook.com/myartitudeindia. Anita also curates works of other potters to add more variety to the collection. New items are added pretty often. You can keep track of that by following their FB page 

I picked up some lovely ceramic holders. This is how I use one of them - to hold my earrings and my make up accessories. Makes it super easy to hold those long earrings and keep them detangled.

For your kitchen there are onion/garlic storage jars, cups and saucers, mugs, bowls, plates, appetizer servers. They come in different shapes and sizes, beautiful patterns and are multipurpose.

There are some very attractive ceramic door or drawer knobs, these oh-so-cute owl tea lights holders (Know of anyone who loves anything owls? Perfect gift for them!) and jars and holders in lots of shapes and sizes.

There are so many other things. You have to go and see for yourself. She has these tea light and perfumed oil burners in some gorgeous colours. I LOVE that green!

Be warned - since these products are not mass produced, getting exactly same products as in these pictures might not be possible. But I am sure you will get other lovely pieces :)
The prices are reasonable and are in a wide range. The items can be used functionally across the house or for gifting (umm hmm for that next house warming party? Or even to a friend who loves pottery).

Happy Shopping!!

Adding colour into my home!

I like colour! In the right amount and shade it makes a room come alive. An entrance, a foyer,  a dark corner - all of these can be made bright, welcoming and striking using colour. Accessories help in adding that splash of colour too.
We have been incorporating our own dashes of colour into the decor at home. Holi being just around the corner helps in motivating, I guess!
Here are a few glimpses of where we are as of now :)

Turquoise is the husband's favourite. So much so that he wants a full wall in that colour. I don't quite agree with that bit but yes I love turquoise too. So we have been adding that to the living room. The mirror is from The Purple Turtles. The glass bottle is from @Home.
We both love green and so we bought the white planter and the green ferns (I DO NOT have a green thumb) from Oma during their annual sale recently. They don't have the details updated on their website - their Bangalore store is in UB city on Vittal Mallya road.

The sofa and chaise were custom made by Cane Boutique. The grey and purple goes well with our curtains.
Slowly, steadily, introduce one thing at a time is what I am doing with the home and it is working well.

What colour are you going to add into your homes and hearts today? Think of the world as a canvas and yourself as an artist, go splash and fill life with colours!!
Happy Holi!!

Real Homes I - Poorni, KG and Adi's house

This post has been pending for the longest time ever! I know! Without further delay presenting to you *Drumroll please* - the first home in the Real Homes series, which belongs to Poorni, KG and their son Adi.
Lets start with a tour of the house and then I will tell you about the owners :)

For me, these first two pictures sum up their home, they are the essence, the soul of their home.  These pictures are a preview of what the owners love!

Poorni is learning to play a guitar. Music, books, collectibles, eclectic stuff, mixed furniture, it all finds a place in their home and makes it warm and inviting. 

Both Poorni and KG are book lovers and yes they pick up books even if they have lots in the to-be-read list. I do that too, do you?

One of the many things I love about their home is the lived-in, casual feeling one gets as you walk in.

Those are tiny paper lights strung around the bigger hanging lamp and they look oh so pretty when lit up!

The Dhalls are a travel loving family and their trips all over the world have resulted in a lovely collection of artifacts displayed all over the house.

Ladies and Gentlemen presenting to you the Starbucks coffee mug collection :) 

This lamp was picked up from Delhi on a trip to source lights for their current house when the interiors were being done. 

Wall art picked from Purple Turtles, Indiranagar. The art is by Aarti Karwayun Chawda of ispaceart. 

Very soothing and long lasting natural fiber blinds from BlindLove, Indiranagar.

Their house has soothing colours, mostly neutrals or earthy colours like this brick wall here. 

Art and various art forms can be seen throughout the house, like the aboriginal art from Australia above. 

The blend of the traditional with the modern, you think?? Love the antique finish mirror, again from Purple Turtles. The fridge magnets are souvenirs picked from everywhere they have been. 

The love for music has passed on to Adi, who is learning to play the drums. 

Poorni is an ex IT professional. She loves to travel, read, try new things and explore the world, one bit at a time! She is also a photographer and does assignments professionally. Check her photography page here. She is the owner/creator of Beantree, which uses natural and locally sourced ingredients to produce food free from preservatives and additives. Their lovely, finger licking hummus is available in multiple stores. My personal favourite is the lemon coriander hummus. 

KG apart from his corporate world/IT career which takes him around the world more than often, loves to read and run. He is now preparing for his first 50K run. 

Let me know if you would like to know anything about the things featured in the post - what, from where, et all. I shall ask the owners and let you know. 

Happy Friday and hope you all have a lovely weekend!!

Indya Kaleidoscope - a treasure chest!

Indya Kaleidoscope is a treasure cove tucked away in a corner. You won't spot it unless you are looking for it and once you do you won't want to leave :) 
It is a cozy little store with walls painted in bright colours, some peacock blue, some red. They showcase and sell, like they say on their FB page, good quality traditional arts and crafts. Be it in their original form or with a contemporary twist. 

They have on display Channapatna Laquerware, Banaras wood crafts, Brass artefacts, Terracotta products, Manipur Longpi pottery (also called Black pottery), Blue pottery, Plam wood crafts, Pondicherry stone pottery, Kantha work soft furnishing amongst a whole lot of other stuff. 

What welcomes you as you walk in to the store on the 1st floor, is a bright yet warm red wall and a whole room full of collectibles, home decor items and treasures to die for!

The brass idols collection against this red wall looks stunning. We saw a whole range of Ganesha idols, from classic to contemporary forms. Go find your own! 

There are beautiful paintings, like this one below, from Banaras. 

Collectibles, mini vases, pots, all hand-painted. Beautiful! 

Fabric clutches in all colours and shapes.

Colourful painted wooden dolls and boxes.

Krishna in all his glory.

                             

Madhubani work lampshades. Hand-painted wooden boxes for storing your jewelry, nick knacks and small trinkets.

Brass and copper minis. Kitchen utensils, pots, miniature equipment. They look so so cute!

And one of my favorites - pottery from Pondicherry! 

Kantha work cushion covers.  They look beautiful, don't they? We are going to place our custom orders once the new place is ready.

The owner Preethi writes a blog too and does a lot of DIY-ers. You can check them out here.  
She also sources furniture and antiques on request. So contact her if you are looking for that antique wooden mirror for your bedroom wall or chains for the swing in your living room. 

She has recently created a space in the store where artists, craft makers, writers, bloggers, decorators, designers or just book readers can come, sit surrounded by some exquisite crafts and do their creative thing. They promise to keep the coffee flowing!! What more can you ask for? :) 

Drop in and find your treasure. They keep adding new stuff every now and then so worth scheduling a regular visit :) 

Store details
The IK store in Bangalore is at - 
BNRK Towers, 891/A, 1st Floor, 
7th A Cross, Koramangala 1st Block, 
Bangalore - 560034

Tel - +91 80 40981536
Email: indyakaleidoscope@gmail.com
FB page - https://www.facebook.com/Indyakaleidoscope 
Website - http://indyakaleidoscope.com/ 

Road Trip Day 4 & 5 - Sun city, Blue city - Jodhpur!

We loved Jodhpur! Period! It looked great, and has expanded well in the last 20 years. The Jodhpur part of the trip was very nostalgic. We visited the house we stayed in, the school where mom taught, dad's office and the school where me and my sister studied for 2 years. It felt like replacing a photographic memory with the actual image.

My sis and me in the school campus in the pic below. Most of it was the same with a few additions, a fresh paint job and a new play yard. The current principal was happy to see us and told us to look around and take pictures :)

After that we did our round of shopping, yes we are pretty incorrigible that way! Ended up buying some bandhej and lehriya sarees, some handloom stuff and some souvenirs for gifts. In my defense I did not own a single Rajasthani saree before this :) 

There is this road in Jodhpur city, called Nai Sadak, and it was our regular shopping haunt during our earlier stay. We headed back there and had mirchi vada, matar kachori, pyaaz ki kachori and mawa barfi - all of Rajasthan's local specials. 

Out of the local tourist destinations we chose to re-visit Mehrangarh fort. I had images from earlier visits to the fort in my head - the blue coloured houses as seen from the fort, the huge looming fort structure and flights of pigeons!!
It has been maintained really well and has been done up well in terms of a tourist destination. The signs are easy to read and well explained. The guards are tourist friendly, seem well educated and can talk in Hindi and English in addition to their local language. There are cafes and very clean restrooms inside the fort (a rare sight in most tourist destinations in India). It was a great experience and I can visit this place again!!

We left for Bikaner around lunch time on Day 5. Reached there at about 7:30 pm. This was a good drive - the roads were pretty decent except a few stretches. Again not too many places to eat but as we got closer to Bikaner things got better. 

Day 6 - the last day post coming up soon... 

Road Trip Day 2 - Shopping in Jaipur!

All we did on Day 2 was shop! We shopped till we dropped! Well not literally but almost.

It was raining in the morning and we thought "Sigh! There go our shopping plans." But the weather gods were good to us and the rain stopped by the time we finished sight seeing.

We started by visiting Hawa Mahal. During our earlier trip to Jaipur about 20 years ago, this was one of the places we had been to and so we wanted to revisit the place. Took some pictures and saw Jantar Mantar and other city sights from Hawa Mahal.

Just outside Hawa Mahal is Johari Bazaar and near by are Choti Chaupad and Bapu Bazaar. This area is one of the main tourist hubs and shopping area (Insider info, courtesy, a friend's mom who stays in Jaipur) :)

We started window shopping and progressed to full fledged shopping very soon. The 2 members of the group who generally dislike shopping - N and my dad cooperated very well! They stayed with us throughout the day and even helped us shop. 

The shops and clothes were a riot of colors. Johari bazaar was in general overpriced than Bapu bazaar. So if you plan to shop, visit Bapu bazaar first. The rates are cheaper and closer to the actual price compared to Johari bazaar, reason being Johari bazaar is closer to the tourist attractions and attracts more foreign tourists. 

We picked some bedsheets, bed spreads, rajais (comforters), skirts, suits, bandhej sarees and some kurtas. Looking at the loot at the end of the day was immensely satisfying! I know material pleasures but ask a shop-a-holic and you will know how it feels ;)

We did have a good lunch at Lakshmi Mishthan Bhandar in Johari bazaar. Also enjoyed some local stuff like mirchi vada and daal ke pakode.

Tomorrow we leave Jaipur for Jodhpur via Ajmer. We plan to stop at Ajmer Sharif and seek blessings. 

I am excited about visiting Jodhpur, especially seeing Mehrangarh fort and my school. 

Cheers to holiday shopping and the little pleasures of life!!!

Had to do a collage of pics rather than my regular lots-of-pictures-post because of a borrowed, low speed internet connection. But something is better than nothing!! :) 

Day 28 - Sawatdee from Thailand!

We are in Thailand now with friends!!! And it is awesome. Here are some glimpses from the first few days in Thailand - Bangkok and Koh Samui.

The Royal Palace, Bangkok

Reclining Buddha temple, Bangkok

Margarita on a hot summer day says holiday!!!

Yellow curry, yumm!!

Pad Thai

Holidays with friends is bliss. Happy Holidays!!