Butterflies

Meri titliyon ki Kahani.. Episode 18
My models, my nautanki queens. They love their twinning moments...and I love to create them. Kya bolun, the things they love to do. They are passionate about everything in life. They love to dream, dance, and play. And I love to dress them up.
These suits were designed for them for a Punjabi dance performance. They gave me a few specifications... the dresses had to be colourful, bright, different for both, comfortable, and easy to dance in. I still gave them salwars with the same color (which they were really angry about). The material was not very expensive...the dupattas are all old ones. And as usual they wore a pair of sneakers to complete the look.. simply because it's easier to run around and dance in sneakers. The dance was a big hit and so were my girls. I love them sooooo.

Instructor ki Bhabhi

Saree ki Kahani...Episode 17

I love to be fit and active.  But as a makeup artist, I have to endure long hours of standing and frequent bending..so much so that my back and legs pain like crazy during marriage season. So how do I take care of my body then?
As I said, I love to stay fit and so I have finally found a trainer who is absolutely amazing in making us workout according to our profession and body type. Had a lot of trainers but never found anyone like him. He is smart and handsome and single. And that really bothers us  women. The single tag cannot be seen by us for long. So after much persuasion and cajoling, he agreed to get married. And we were his family at the wedding. Since he believes in Arya samaj, so we fixed everything in a mandir in Noida. I was the Bhabhi and wore a Chanderi saree which is woven with jari and had handembroidery done on it. This saree was gifted by my Nani to my mom about 35 years back on the occasion of birth of my brother. The blouse is raw silk. And the silver kamar chhabi laccha has been gifted by my best friend.

My Green leather companion😍

Clingy and more... Episode 16
I have often wanted a companion whom I am comfortable with, doesn't weigh me down, carries all my stuff like a gentleman, clings to my body whenever I need, and loves me till its last moments.....and I found this divine being in Vietnam!! It's called a custom made sling.
I was gifted my first sling by my sister from Charles and Keith (Singapore) but found it too heavy on the shoulders. Since then I have looked and looked but never found the perfect sling.
When I went to Vietnam for my last holiday, my eyes lit up when my guide took me to a shop in Hoi Ann (ancient city of lanterns) where I could custom design my own leather sling  and they would make it and deliver it to me in the next 12 hours. So I got this bag done which has enough space, is soft on my shoulders, has just the right number of pockets and the colour was not the usual ones. I wore the bag with this jaipuri kurta bought from Jaipur for 650/- (material). Got a skirt made out of the duppatta (just can't wear the usual stuff). The stole is from Vietnam as well.

Housewarming party

Griha Pravesh ki Kahani... Episode 15
I had always dreamed of buying my own house and doing it up in style. My father had encouraged us to buy property and we bought several houses for iinvestment before finally buying a house to stay about three years back. It then took nearly  a year to tear it down and build it again from scratch. My husband and I love staying in this house that has not only been designed by me but also contstructed under my supervision. I got my old team of carpenters and masons from Mumbai and got everything custom made. 
When the house was completed, I wanted the griha pravesh to be special, different, but on a budget.(Everyone knows the kind of money that gets blown up in doing up a new house).
So I ordered the same saree in different colours from Snapdeal at a great price of Rs.250 each.....
My friends selected the sarees according to their choice and the blouse that they had. All men wore white kurtas...
As for me and my girls we decided on yellow ( looks auspicious and festive). My chequered blouse was my mom's which she wore 40 years back. Fitted me perfectly and matched the saree too.

Fairies of the garden

Basant ki pariyan... Episode 14
I still remember my first date with my (first) hubby at Bandstand Mumbai. He was driving for the first time and I was already an expert driver. He banged the car into an auto and later apologized saying that I was making him all nervous. And later in the conversation when I mentioned that I did not wear shorts because I did not have sexy legs, he nearly choked wondering what he had gotten himself into.

And now nearly 20 years later, I either wear sarees or I wear shorts. This spring when the flowers were in full bloom, my girls and I decided to make an album out of the unbeatable combination of spring and shorts. And here it is..
I bought my white top from Bangkok because I loved the flow and cut. And so I got similar tops done for my girls from the same mulmul material.
I got the younger one's top done from an old dupatta.
The neckpieces are made by my elder daughter from chains which were left over from the pendants she had used earlier for decorating our new year shorts.
A good look for a very small amount is what I love about these photographs.

Tumhari Sulu

Saree ki kahani...Ep.13
I just love freebies. However small or useless they are. Have always worked hard for them. I still remember that as a teenager, I used to sit next to my trusted FM radio and continuously dialed the number to win those free movie tickets every Wednesday. And I did get to watch a lot of free movies!

But getting a saree as a freebie with two sarees was a dream come true. I bought 2 Banarasi sarees from this old Weaver in Noida mahotsav. He gave me a great discount which I was very happy about and to top it off, as a special gesture of thanks he asked me to pick one saree of cotton banarasi asa gift.
Can you imagine my surprise, gratitude and happiness? One more strong reason for me to keep buying from only weavers.
The blouse as you can see has coloured stitches done, to give it a different look. I bought the girls' tops from an export surplus store for Rs.150 each. The neck piece is from Dariba, Chandni Chowk. And the smile...you all know!!!

Baniya Buddhi rocks

Saree ki Kahani...Episode 12

We baniya bahus get sarees  from our inlaws during marriage...and the number of sarees one gets is veryyyy important. I got 11 silk sarees that I was really proud of.
This saree in the picture was a part of that same collection. Wore it a few times in my initial years of marriage and that too only in winters.(I firmly believe that every saree has a particular weather it needs to be worn in ).  Twenty years back these shaded sarees were a huge rage. In fact almost all my sarees had this shading in some form or other. Now it looks really outdated.
So let's talk about the changes I did to this one, by applying my 'Baniya Buddhi'. Originally the saree had shades of blue which made it look old fashioned so I covered the patch with this bright pink raw silk border and got these sequin polka dots  embroidered in golden colour all over the border and on the complete saree. The blouse has a combination because the left over raw silk was enough just for the sleeves and the brocade was expensive:)
The jhumkis were bought from Dariba in Chandni Chowk for Rs.100

Hot pink n contemporary Innovation

Dress ki Kahani ... Ep11
Heres a wife who has grown from being an absolute introvert, to this confident, a successful professional and ever smiling lady and the entire credit goes to this man who knows the perfect way to treat all the women in his life.
Let's talk about this shocking pink dress. A pure silk cloth bought again from a designers lot of throw away cut pieces priced at 200rs. Had no idea what will I do with this.
Gave a kurta design to the tailor. He stitched it short by mistake (shouting at the tailors is the last thing one can do).
So took it home and kept thinking for almost one season. Finally had to go to a winter brunch party and decided to do a few Changes to this kurta.
Got the ruffles added to the sleeves, with a slit in front.
And the dress was ready to be worn.

Splendid restoration

Saree ki Kahani....Ep.10
Me writing stories every week... unimaginable. Dimag ka dahi ban jata hai sochte sochte, but still can't wait to tell you stories of my favorite pieces...

Got this Chanderi saree from Deep utsav in Noida for like 900rs a few years back. Wore it once and realised the zari had turned all black on the sides, so waited for almost 5 yrs to redesign it again.
Got a cotton white lace and dyed in the same pink colour. Got it stitched on the border so that it covered the blackish part. As for the blouse, I covered it with this banarasi cloth piece (katran) left over from a old suit and embroidered these small polka dots on its sleeves so that it matched the pallu design. I did the embroidery overnight, took me about 4 hrs to finish it.(ek baar soch liya to hum kisi ki nahin sunte) But final result made all the hard work worth it....Great for wearing at  puja ceremony's....we all have blouses or sarees where the zari has spoilt, maybe this can help.🤗🤗

Funky, Fab and Chilled out

Shorts ki Kahani...Ep.9
This according to me is the weirdest thing me and my girls have done so far...
Statutory warning..try at your own risk.😀
I went to a place called Seelampur in Delhi. I consider myself to be a really strong person but believe me this place made me scared. Why did I go there??? Because someone told me that you can get very good export quality cloth. I was in this place for almost 15 minutes trying to find the elusive cloth market. Oh...and I was continuously sending my location to my hubby, because I normally get a lot of scolding for the kind of places I go to.
To cut a long story short, I could not find this market but I did got hold of a thela guy who was selling cut pieces of cloth. I got hold of a few of them in silver color. I thought they would make excellent cushion covers.  I always pick up stuff and then change my mind the moment I get home.
So I ended up getting silver shorts made for the girls gang for our new year party in Singapore.
The hangings on the thighs was added by my daughter made out of necklaces that we bought from one of the South Extension signals.
The party was rocking and we girls were the centre of attraction!

Yellow, yellow...makes you beautiful and mellow

Saree ki Kahani...Ep.8
I love yellow as a colour...one of the many favorite colors I have.
I really don't know how people decide on one favorite color.
I am not a one liner answer girl.
I love sarees in any color 😀
As for this one, I bought a white Mangalgiri cotton saree with zari border, and decided to get it dyed in yellow.(so indecisive) I had always admired block printing but couldn't get the courage to do it. So I decided to find a handicraft unit. At that time I was in Chennai where my hubby was posted. So..as I was saying..A handicraft unit, where they would let me use the blocks myself and create my own design. And so I did. I found a quaint little place, it was on the terrace of a house, did the block printing myself...and then I was not happy with the end result ( now u get it) So I kept this yellow saree aside for nearly 13 years.  And last year I took it out again, decided that I should give it a chance too. ( Me n my decisions)What do you think ladies?
I hope you guys can decide faster than me.

Skirt with a twist

Kurton ki Kahani... Ep.7
What inspires me to reuse my clothes?? I believe one can look fabulous without spending a huge amount of money. I also find it tough to shop at the last minute ..I would much rather use my creativity to custom make something nice.
As for this look, it's simple and easy. Anyone can do it.
I had to attend a friend's party and as usual, I had nothing to wear... Kyaaaa kare?
So I rummaged in my wardrobe and presto..out came two of my old kurtas..
One was a night shirt, and the other one a kurta I had bought from the AND sale. l no longer wore these old clothes and so decided to go to work with them.
I cut the kurta and  made a skirt out of the lower portion. As for the blue shirt..simple enough...I just cut the old night shirt short  and wore it on this skirt.
And yes I did have a great party that night.

Saree with golden buzzer

I love wearing clothes with a golden hue since they give a very rich look and complement my skin color. I bought this satin golden saree  cloth from Mumbai from Vandana cloth house (at a discount of course!). I wanted to get chandelier lace done on this saree, but it's expensive ..Rs.2500 per metre. So I bought a small piece of chandelier lace and only got it embroidered on the front pallu where it would be most visible. Netting was done on top of the lace to give the whole thing a soft look.
When it came to choice of color for the blouse, what better than black to go with golden color saree. I had an itsy-bitsy piece of black cloth lying in my 'collection'  that I had forgotten all about ( a left over piece from the furnishing ). I used it to create a strap blouse because the material was less and voila...all set to dazzle. I wore this outfit at a wedding reception and hopefully turned some heads.. 😜.
The entire look cost Rs.8000.

Duppatton Ki Kahani

I am an architect by qualification. I often used to wear kurtas to college and hence had a lot of duppatta of various colours. My mom had collected them and kept them very neatly for me over the years. So finally last year I decided to use a few of them.
For my younger daughter the purple salwar was stitched from one of the old dupattas. Her kurta was made from normal white lining material (easily available for Rs.70 per metre).
For my ensemble, the kurta was stitched from one of the old dupattas. I bought the green salwar and dupatta from a clearance sale.
My elder daughter wanted something funky. So she combined a crop top with a blue scarf that I fashioned out of an old piece of clothing. Her salwar was bought from the same clearance sale.
The complete look cost me under RS.2000/- and was worn at a Holi lunch in my society.

Anarkali Ki Kahani

I love to talk..and that's how I write. So let's talk about this look which I feel anyone can do.
Bought this white anarkali from Jashn Mumbai at their annual sale for RS.2200. (I always buy my stuff at discount 😄love the feeling).
Wore it once but didn't like the look it gave to my body. So I converted it into a lehenga and choli. The lower part became the lehenga, added the plain black border to the already existing  purple border and got thread lines done all over it diagonally,  basically to match it to the blouse which was the upper part of the anarkali. The border was added in both the lehenga and the blouse to increase the length.
The dupatta remained the same. 
The total cost of redoing the full thing was approximately Rs.4000
The tassels of the blouse are made from used rakhi lumbas.

The Blue Fairies

This week, I want to tell you the story of two cotton Kota sarees of same colour but different prints bought at a throwaway price of Rs.750 each. I got these sarees converted into skirts and kurtas as seen in the pic.
And as for the kids net skirts...a very funny story.
In 2008, I had kept a joint birthday bash for both my girls. I had used a lot of this blue net for the decoration of the venue ( I love breaking stereotypes) and had kept a few pieces of it to be used later. Got the skirts done out of this net ( which is not the usual net that one uses) but the color matched and anyway I am ardent advocate of recycling...two birds with one stone.
The three dresses cost us Rs.5000....and the smile comes free 😍

Polka Dot White Saree

I bought this polka dot South Indian saree from a very small vendor in one of the Diwali melas for Rs.500.

The blouse cloth was bought from Ahmedabad from law garden road side stall for Rs.250.
The blouse cloth was small, very raw, and unfinished. So I gave finishing touches to the embroidery by hand and added a lot of extra cloth on the ends of the blouse with thread stitching done all over to make it look good.
I also added some mirrors to the blouse.

I completed the look with bangles bought from Sarojini nagar market for Rs.250 and loop earrings from lagpat nagar for Rs.200.

The whole look cost me about Rs.2500.

The Grey Saree for Royal Highness

Redesigned this 20 yr old saree gifted by my mom...giving it a classy, comtemporary look.
The border was bought in pieces from a Suneet Verma stock clearance sale, embroidered the patches together to make it look like one. 
And finally got the fringes lace stitched on the pallu and the blouse sleeves.
Completed the look with blue stone earrings, metal clutch and my favourite hairstyle.(hair tied into buns)