Friday 29 July 2016

Friday Favourites: Bagh-e-Bahar Colouring Book from Good Earth.

There is something incredibly relaxing about art. About drawing, colouring, creating something. It takes one's mind off the various stresses and worries of everyday life.

I have always loved colouring books. So much so that before 'adult colouring books' became trendy, I used to buy the kiddie ones and colour them in. An elephant balancing a ball on its head, an ice cream cart, a cute cat and so on... They were decidedly "child-like" sketches but I loved colouring them in! So, imagine my delight, when adult colouring books became a thing! There are just so many beautiful ones to choose from out there.. I even have a Traveler's Notebook colouring insert from an Etsy store! So much joy!

Anyway, so, I was on Facebook the other day, when I saw an ad for Good Earth's new 'Mughal Garden' themed colouring book. They had a few pictures of the inside spreads and I didn't need any more persuading! Hopped on to Amazon and quickly placed an order!




Just look at the beautiful book cover! This book has beautiful spreads inspired by themes from Mughal architecture and gardens. 



Some of the spreads have bits that are coloured in, which a good thing as it helps to anchor the colour scheme for that particular page. 




The book also has lovely quotes by Rumi, which goes perfectly with the spirit and vibe of this book. 





Some more spreads.. This one depicts the Chief Grocer and his men making purchases. So cute! 




More Rumi loveliness! Can't wait to get my colouring on! 





Look at the beautiful geometric details. Classic Mughal motifs! 




One of the very few things I have coloured in... I am still figuring out what medium to use.. watercolour pencils, fine liners or water colours.. This was done with my Staedtler Water Colour pencils. 




I am also thinking of using metallic colours to highlight certain parts of the spreads.. to mimic the use of Metallic colours in Mughal miniatures :) 




Lovely, lovely, lovely! 


Have you bought yourself an adult colouring book yet? Which ones are your favourite?

Tuesday 26 July 2016

Vignettes: Pages.







Hello! 

Some Pages and Words from recent times. 
This Tuesday feels like a Saturday, for some odd reason. 
I spent most of today in bed..I have a sinking feeling I am coming down with something. I have popped a bunch of vitamins to ward off any illness that might be coming my way.
Hopefully this works! 

So I leave you will pages and words today. 

:) 

Monday 25 July 2016

General Whimsy: Plant Lady.







Plant lady is the new Cat Lady.

I love plants in a home.
I love the life they infuse in the space. 

My parent's home is full of plants and I wish so was mine. 
Sadly I am not the best when it comes to keeping plants well.
Also when you go away for a month or more, the poor plants need to fend for themselves and it makes me feel really guilty. 

But a little bit of nature in an urban jungle is just what the soul needs. 

:) 

Saturday 23 July 2016

Mini Reviews: Bhendi Bazaar and Doosra by Vish Dhamija {Kindle Unlimited}


Book: Bhendi Bazaar

Author: Vish Dhamija

Pages: 360

Read on: Kindle (via Kindle Unlimited)

Read in: 4-odd hours

Plot Summary: 1982. Three teenage girls planning a flight from the Soviet Union to the West end up being sold in Mumbai's red-light area instead. The murders start a quarter of a century later. The victims are all men. All of them tricks, waiting for trysts with high-class escorts. 

DCP Rita Ferreira is quick to recognize the serial-killer strain; the media isn't far behind. The news sends shock-waves through the city. The first serial killer in living memory of Mumbai is out on the streets. As Rita grapples to establish the killer's pattern through Bhendi Bazaar, the killer gives her 24 hours to stop the next murder. Can she do that before she becomes the next victim?

Thoughts and Review: Vish Dhamija is an author whose work we stumbled upon via our Kindle Unlimited subscription. If you want to know what Kindle Unlimited is and what our thoughts on it are, please click here

Bhendi Bazaar is a pretty taut and well-crafted serial killer thriller. It is quite pacy, the killings are sufficiently sensational, not gimmicky but have enough of a ritual to feel like this is a serial killer book. The characters are decently crafted- not brilliant and there are some very obvious 'this book is written by a man' overtures in this book- for instance, Rita has a great ass (do we need to know that for a super cop?), Rita likes drinking (she is an alcoholic but that's neither here nor there) and she likes to have no-strings sex.. all things that according to Mr. Dhamija make her super cool *insert vomit emoji*. However, in spite of all that bizarre-ness, the book is decent. The killer is fairly obvious to anyone paying attention, especially, around the 30% mark but somehow it doesn't bore you. 

Rating: 2.5/5 


Book: Doosra- The Other One 

Author: Vish Dhamija 

Pages: 360 

Read on: Kindle via Kindle Unlimited 

Read in: Off and on over two days 

Plot Summary: Ron Jogani, a jeweller from Mumbai, is in Belgium to buy a consignment of loose diamonds worth over €10 million. Hours later he's dead in his hotel room in Brussels: murdered. The perpetrators are extremely tech-savvy and have defeated all the CCTV cameras in the hotel... but one concealed camera in the elevator has snapped one of the guys. When one of the stolen diamonds is sold in Mumbai, the Belgian Police reach out to their Indian counterparts to catch the person in the candid-shot. 

The case is assigned to DCP Rita Ferreira. But when Rita and her team track down the man in the photograph provided by the Belgians, they realise there must have been some slip-up: the target does not even have a passport - he couldn't have travelled to Brussels. And then they discover that a private detective is already following their target.

Review: This book was a typical Sophomore Slump! There was no real mystery here, even though the author tries his darnest to weave a plot out of nothing. I don't know why I persevered through this book... perhaps I was in a reading slump myself and trying to finish a book instead of just putting it away?! Who knows? 
Avoid it. 

Rating: 1/5 

Friday 22 July 2016

Friday Favourites: Fauxdori + Bookmarks + Owl Tote + Bombay Rains + Art!

Hello! 

It's Friday and that means it's time to line up some things I've been loving lately. 

I have been loving the lovely rains we've had all week long in Bombay.
And to add to the mood I've been reading psychological thrillers all week long! 
Reviews and thoughts on the same coming soon.
Right now I am just getting started with an Agatha Christie mystery--  Cat Among Pigeons! 
My weekend reading seems all sorted. 

My Friday has been lovely.
I've been resting my busted leg and watching a shit ton of videos on Youtube and reading in bed.
I also talked to my Dad and caught up on things. 
Made myself a simple lunch and drank some orange juice. 
Also there was Pizza! 
And...new cleaning supplies...well I am a Monica Gellar at heart and this bring me joy! 
:) 

Now on to some of my recent loves....


1. A Chic Sparrow Traveller's Notebook in Joy! 
Such an apt name for a bright and happy colour.
My sister ordered this and has very kindly let me use this first. 
I love it so much. 
I use her for lists, observations and documenting happy days. 


2. My Bag of the Week is my Chumbak tote, that I got 2 years ago...but didn't use it.
Bad me!
I love these happy little owls and the super bright colours on this tote bag.
I don't think you can get this exact bag anymore. But this print is available on some other Chumbak creations. 


3. Bookmarks from Fabindia!
Oh My!
Aren't these just gorgeous!? I fell in love with these babies the moment I spotted them in Fabindia and got these to add to my rather massive collection of bookmarks. 
I have no regrets. 


4. Bombay Rains.
Bombay Love. 


5. Prisma is giving me such a chuckle. It's so fun to see ordinary pictures turn into works of art. 
This picture for instance is a bit of agricultural land in West Bengal and now it looks like a trippy colour explosion. 
Ah! Love it. 

Hope your Friday was a Fri-Yay and your weekend turns out to be lovely. 

:) 




Thursday 21 July 2016

Whimsy Wear: Indian Prints and Styles.

Hello! 

This Thursday I thought I'd share some of my recent Sartorial Choices with you.
These were some of the outfits I wore on my recent holiday.
I love Indian prints, textiles and colours for an Indian Summer. 
I wore loads of prints and mixed several prints over the course of my holiday. 

Let's see some of them shall we? 




A kurta from Global Desi.
An old favourite ring of mine that I got from Levitate Bangalore. 


A kurta from Biba, love the soothing colour and the print is just so pretty. 


A very old top from Fabindia & my super cute earrings from Girl Thinks Co. 
How cute are these elephants?! 



A Kantha stitch dupatta and a jacquard  tunic and an old favourite necklace from Fabindia that I have worn to death but still love just as much. 


And finally, my bag of choice for most of my holiday...a gorgeous Ikat satchel from Ajio. 
It went with every single outfit and added such a lovely pop of colour to my looks. 
Plus it fit everything I needed without being too bulky. 

:)





Wednesday 20 July 2016

Book Review: The Girl in the Red Coat by Kate Hamer


Book: The Girl in the Red Coat

Author: Kate Hamer

Pages: 384

Read on: The Kindle

Read in: 3-4 hours

Plot Summary: Carmel Wakeford becomes separated from her mother at a local children's festival, and is found by a man who claims to be her estranged grandfather. He tells her that her mother has had an accident and that she is to live with him for now. As days become weeks with her new family, 8-year-old Carmel realises that this man believes she has a special gift...
While her mother desperately tries to find her, Carmel embarks on an extraordinary journey, one that will make her question who she is - and who she might become.
Things I Liked: Quick list:
1. The premise of the book is interesting- a young child kidnapped (though she doesn't think she is) by an old man claiming to be her estranged maternal grandpa and her mother's journey through the fog of grief, regret, guilt and terror that losing a child brings. So, yeah, that's what drew me to the book and made me pick it up. The book doesn't disappoint as far as delivering on the core premise goes..
2. I liked the chapters that we get to see from Carmel's perspective more than the ones from her mom's perspective. Carmel, who doesn't know she has been kidnapped, is dealing with the bizarre and challenging circumstances that she finds herself in with so much maturity, poise and spirit (at times). It's not that her mum's journey was badly written or boring.. just that it was more predictable and something one has read and seen before. 
3. The reason behind Carmel's kidnapping took me a bit by surprise. I am sure most readers were expecting either pedophilia or an older couple wanting their own child as possible reasons for Carmel's kidnapping, but the real reason is quite bizarre and fairly surprising. 
4. The book is well-paced. There is nothing really superfluous in there and the narrative moves pretty fast. So, that's always a plus for a mystery/ thriller book. 
Things I Didn't Like: Quick list:
1. This book was marketed as a thriller. I read several blurbs on this book, which said it is a thriller. However, the book is not a thriller. Is it a mystery book? Yes. Is it a crime-based book? Yes. However, it is not a thriller. It is a not a book where the police were this close to catching the perps and didn't.. this is not a book where the mother gets breadcrumbs of clues and she goes on this quest of looking for her daughter... What this book is is a story about how a missing child impacts a mother and how a young girl deals with a big change in her life. It is about two independent journeys stemming from one central, traumatic event.. but it ain't no thriller. I just wish this book wasn't marketed as one, because what this book is is good enough. 
2. The narrative is not evenly spaced. We get to see a fairly detailed view of Carmel's life with her kidnappers for the first couple of years and then we are taken to the far end of her captivity. It's like the author rushed to finish the story and couldn't be bothered to fill in the middle bits, especially, once a fairly life-altering event happens to Carmel, which changes her kidnapping experience. 
Rating: 3/5
A good enough book if you'd like to read a well-written story about how a mother and daughter deal with a challenging situation, but remember it is not a thriller or even a major mystery. 

Tuesday 19 July 2016

Book Haul/// Books of July 2016, Part-I.

Hello! 

Time for yet another book haul and that too after a good while. 
May was a slow month for book buying, I think I bought like 4 books..
And I bought zero books in June. 
So once I was back home from my summer holiday..I had a few books I had my eye on and I wanted to get soon. 

So these books were ordered within the first few days of being back from Amazon. 

Let's see what I've added to my bookshelves so far  in the month...













Books Bought..

Munnu A Boy from Kashmir by Malik Sajad 
Waves by Sundara Ramaswamy 
The Living by Anjali Joseph 
Farewell Song by Rabindranath Tagore 
The Creeper by Emerald Fennell 
The Blind Lady's Descendants by Anees Salim
Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbhag 


I am saving most of these books fro my Annual Indian Books in August phenomenon.
I am excited as hell! 

:) 

Happy Reading folks! 

Monday 18 July 2016

Monday Moods: Klever Cases for the Kindle!

Hello! 

I am back! 

I feel like I've been mostly gone from this blog of mine for a while.
Travel and then being back home and trying to get the house back in order has taken up most of my time. And then I hurt my leg rather badly and have been in a world of pain and discomfort! So blogging had taken a bit of a backseat. 
But that stops today. 
Today I return to blogging regularly. 
And what better way to start than to showcase my brand-new love! 
A little over a week ago, my sister spent a good amount of time drooling over these beauties.
I had previously heard about Klever Cases and had it in the back of mind to get  one of these. 
And last week we took the plunge and ordered 3 of these beauties! 

I am so happy with these cases, they are so incredibly beautiful and well-made and simply stunning. 
Really sturdy and honestly they look and feel like a hardback book. 
I couldn't be happier! 

Let's see the beauties shall we...



We got 3 classic covers..

Wuthering Heights--- which is one of our favourite books of all time. 
The Book of Spells--- because Harry Potter is life! 
To Kill a Mockingbird--- another old favourite. 








Aren't these covers just beautiful? 


I am so in love. 

I can't recommend them enough. 

You can get these cases directly from their website  KleverCase 

Or 

You could get them from their Etsy Shop 

I am off to finish my physical book that I am currently reading...Hattie Big Sky and then I am grabbing my Kindle, all dressed up in her new outfit and read an ebook. 
So excite! 

Have a great week ahead folks! 

:)