Weekend getaway from Sydney

We got slightly tired of the urbanscape and escaped to the Southern Highlands in NSW for a weekend. It was a glorious weekend of exploring tiny little country towns, eating fresh produce, walking/ driving along dirt tracks and rivers, splashing about in waterfalls, spotting wildlife, drinking the local beer, exploring markets, buying plants and generally having the most tranquil break from the hectic end of year rush.

I wore easy breathable cottons over bathers with either a pair of flip-flops or my trusty Palladiums, carrying just two pairs of shoes is an achievement for me. I used to be someone that packed a bunch of unnecessary stuff when travelling and I think I am getting better at packing stuff I actually use and not much else.

Here I am wearing my favourite hand-block print fabric shorts and men's shirt with a simple leather cross-body and my boots that I can walk/ hike for hours in. The landscape around the area was stunning and trust me the pictures don't do it justice. There were miles and miles of rolling meadows, quaint farm-houses with farm animals and wild kangaroos, stunning cliff faces with massive waterfalls dotted with myraid colours of wild birds plus the colours of the land and the greenery were straight out of a painting. Seriously beautiful stuff that is being sorely missed now that I am staring out at a construction site!

A road trip around lush tropical rain-forests, watching the sun-set behind undulating landscape and chatting with friendly locals (while cuddling their furry babies) have to be some of my top favourite things to do. And the best part was, a lot of the holiday decor was beautiful, earthy, hand crafted and lacking the tackiness of plastic baubles flooding Sydney right now. I came back refreshed, rejuvenated and with some great ideas for holiday decorations.

What are your summer weekend away favourites?

Running around a dry waterfall in Ko Samuii

This water-fall was fun to get to, riding a rickety scooter up a hill, stopping for some tender coconuts and then walking down to the ravines.
There was no water as we went before the monsoons but it was really fun to run up and down the rocks with a puppy that was wandering about.

An old hand block-print top with denim cut-offs, slip-ons and a locally made bag completed the look for the day. Nothing special, just travel comfort appropriate.

Floral block print cotton in a magical rainforest

Remember when I was talking about buying same dresses in different colours over and over again here? Well the dress in these photos is the exact same dress as this one just in brown, when I like something I really like to go all out and get all different versions of it. Do you do that too?

Some more Kalamkari Love

I am really a creature of habit when it comes to my clothes, I not only buy similar things over and over again, I actually buy the same exact things in many different colours. This dress for example, if you look closely you will notice it is the exact same dress as the last post, just in a different colour. I have no excuse for my hoarding tendencies, I just have never fallen out of love with hand-crafted fabrics. I did think about not posting these sets of photos one after the other and did have other options but then thought, seriously who cares if I wear the exact same dress in a different colour in two different posts?

So here you have it, one of my tried and tested combinations, kalamkari fabric worn with a colourful bandhini scarf and a bright fabric bag. I also always add a bunch of hand crafted jewellery and here I have worn a couple of Dokra necklaces. Another thing that I have too much of and like to pretend one can never have enough of is; indigo fabrics. I have indigo in every kind of hand crafted fabric, batik, bandhini, bagru, Ajrakh, Ikat, kalamkari and I still yearn for more.
What are you tried and tested combinations that you can't get enough of?

Jungle Book

Pretending to be Mowgli in a tropical rainforest, chasing creeks, skipping on mossy rocks leading to waterfalls and loving the smell of the forest. I never wanted to leave and can't wait to go back to the mountains and clamber over rocks till I am exhausted. Of course the cold meant, all the layering happened under the block-print dress, beanie came out to play and boots with thicks socks were needed.

Yes, I go camping in flowy dresses, sometimes trip a little bit but my love for block-print flowy goodness means I rarely want to wear much else. What do you wear to go camping?

Bandhani for my 200th post

I love wearing cholis and saree blouses as tops with jeans and love wearing tee-shirts and sweaters as blouses with sarees. You would have seen cholis with denims here, here and here and a sweater with a saree here.

I don't see the point of wearing certain things in pairs just because that is how it has been done for decades. I believe in having fun with things and playing with silhouettes and proportions as well as putting things together in one's own way. My latest favourite is wearing a Rajasthani type long Bandhani choli with denim and I can say that I am obsessed with this top. It is made from a Gajji silk fabric, which means that it is a satin weave done on silk fabric. It's really soft and I love the deep green colour and the subtle Bandhani designs.

I have had a few things made in this fabric and they are all beyond lovely. The top is worn here with drop-crotch boy-friend jeans but trust me it looks great with shorts, skirts as well as skinnies. These leather slip-ons are from Bali and all the silver is from India, mostly designs from various tribes in Gujarat and Rajasthan.

I hope everyone's had a lovely festive season and are excited about what 2016 will bring. Have a great Sunday :)

Travel diaries: Post cards from Kutch

The vast open desert barren save for thorny bushes, the beautiful textiles and embroidery, the salt marshes located by the Arabian sea stretching along the Tropic of Cancer and the beautiful oasis with migratory birds from far away, Kutch is beautiful! Here are a few pictures that barely do the place justice.

Pochampally & Kutchi embroidery

Pochampally, is a group of many many villages, in Nalgonda in the South Indian state of Telangana where skillfull weavers on traditional hand operated looms make these amazing woven fabrics. They weave stunning silk sarees and cotton fabric that I constantly dream of and ensured that I picked up a bunch of this fabric during the Hyderabad leg of the trip. This top was made from some of the Pochampally ikat fabric I fell in love with, it is a simple shirt/ kurta that I can wear with denim or churidar and dupatta or even wear to work with a skirt. I love the fact that slowly I am creating a wardrobe that includes things that I consider staples; ikat, block-print, bandhani, leheriya, shibori, traditional embroidery etc.

This bag is made by the ladies of a tribal group in Kutch and was picked up in Dhordo a tiny village in the Rann of Kutch. I am currently in love and wear it with everything. All the jewellery worn in this post is silver from various silver-smiths who cater to and specialise in designs specific to certain tribes. While I was walking around the markets one day, an older gentleman was very confused as to which tribe I was from because I was wearing jewellery from three different tribal clans. The cuff that I am wearing on my left wrist is something I haven't taken off in over a year and the jumbled bunch that is my anklets stay put all through summer. I am also wearing a hooked clasp silver key ring at the waist similar to a 'chatelaine'. It is called 'Chabi ka Challa' or 'Chabi ka Guccha' in Hindi I think. The lady of a house wears one of these with all the important keys of the house. Depending on their socio-economic status these could be of 22 carat gold with precious stones or silver with semi-precious stones.

I just don't see the point of changing things that are already perfect. Instead of trying to get my hands on what's trendy every season I try to source traditional jewellery and handicraft items that will last me for years and something that will hopefully be passed down generations. I'd rather spend my money ensuring that traditional craftmanship remains profitable.

I am wearing these with Kolhapuri leather chappals that I bought from a street stall in Colaba, they are destined to be used like crazy over the summers to come. I wish one day I am able to spend extensive time in some places with a rich textile heritage and master some of these crafts, until then I am going to live in them and hope the magic of creating beauty rubs off on me.

Travel diaries: Charminar, Hyderabad

The city of extravagant palaces, beautiful tombs, stunning temples, of Nawabs, of tehzeeb and old-world charm, mouth-watering cusine and amazing textiles; Hyderabad. Walking around the Charminaar and surroundings on a warm morning before the shops opened and the frenzy began I could see glimpses of the grand city it once was and the mess it now is. I wish we are able to value the rich heritage we have in India while moving toward a more sustainable future. I am glad I visited though, the biryani and my uncle's home cooked food were delectable to say the least and it makes me so happy to see beautiful ancient structures, the plastic waste they are surrounded by makes my blood boil but that is a rant made for another post.

I will post a few of my travel photos in the next few weeks, clothes-wise I mostly stuck to the long kurta, jeans/ shorts combination. This yellow hand-loom kurta was bought the night before these pictures were taken and in my opinion is a wonderful find. I pretty much used the same leather bag and same few flat shoes over the entire trip and didn't carry a single pair of heels. It was fun to travel light on the way over, on the way back though, it was a whole different drama. Basically all you need to know is I had a lot of new kurtas to wear, not enough time to wear them all and I can't wait to return home to travel some more in India. :)