Budweiser of India

Today we headed back to Paharganji Market to select our shawls. There is one vendor that we love because his prices are reasonable and we know that the quality is good. But his shop is located in this particular market. I wish I had the words to adequately describe this market. It is a place where multitasking skills are survival tools. Think narrow streets lined with tiny shops. Think pothole galore. Think people, animal, food cart, rickshaws and autoshaws all trying to obtain passage on a street no wider than two cars side by side. On top of it all, it is a pickpocket's heaven. You learn to do the scan: side to side for what's about to hit or pickpocket you, and then down for what you are about to step in or on. As I did the scan, this scene behind me caught my eyes and reminded me of home. Budweiser beer.

I understand that it is an oxen, and not Clydesdale horses. Rice not beer. Such minor details. If you hum the ditties from the commericals, you'll see the Budweiser light.

Neutral Pashminas

Okay, finally have uploaded the neutral pashminas. So, you can see- going from far left to right - the neutral colors we have thus far are in taupe, camel and linen/flax. We are planning to add pale pinks today, so if there other colors anyone else wants us to take photos of to possibly purchase, speak now or forever hold your silence!

Apparently my facial expression proved a bit distracting in the last pashmina shoot; consequently, I fired myself as a model. The camera sometimes brings the worse out of me! The stole that I am wearing in this one is the linen/flax (far right from above picture)

Now, I know that several of you are reading this blog. Let me encourage you not to be afraid to comment. All you have to do is hit the comment button, type in the scary letters and then hit publish.

Yum-Yum

It's Lynn here tonight. This will be short since it's after midnight. I love thinking about what we got to eat and drink today. For breakfast Susan and I had delicious ripe papaya cut up with fresh lime and salt on it. It was beautiful to look at and lusicous to eat. We left for a very long day of shopping going to lots of different markets buying lots of things with great color today - must have been the orange papaya! Some great summer cloth napkins and then lots of incredible, each one different light wool hand-embroidered stoles to have fun with this winter. Ugh - winter.

We were really tired this afternoon and didn't want to stop for lunch, so we went to our favorite coffee shop. It's a chain here and it has interesting flavor combos in frozen coffee for just over a dollar! My favorite is called "cold sparkle" and it has slight coconut flavoring. It is really hard not to suck it down in two minutes flat! Yum again. On the way there we had quite an adventure as we had to hunt through blocks and blocks of shops that go around for miles in a circle in the center of Delhi. A really obvious scam artist (loads of them in central Delhi) came alongside us and started asking us where we wanted to go. They try to get tourists to sign up for fake tours. They act like they're your friend and just chat away. Susan noticed that he seemed to have a friend behind us so we watched our backpacks closely. He kept on and on until we went into the coffee shop and then a friend of his came in and sat next to us. We moved and two more of them came upstairs and sat beside us. Always talking about tours, etc. and trying to make friends. We got really sick of all of that and decided to pay our bill and make a run for it across the very busy street to catch a rickshaw over there. Thanks to God we left them in the dust. They probably didn't mean any physical harm, but financial harm was surely in their minds! Anyway, we are always thankful for God's protection whether we know about it or not.

OK. I said this would be short. But I have to mention dinner. We met a friend of mine who lives in Delhi and ate at a veg restaurant. Not like what we might think of as veg at home. We had a wonderful rich spinach dish with slightly hot spices cooked for a real long time - like in the south. No vitamins for us tonight. Then we had chick peas in a spicy tomato sauce. And one last dish to share was potato chunks in a spicy, tomato, yogurty sauce. All with this great flatbread to mop up the sauces. My mouth would be watering again if my stomach wasn't still so stuffed.

Great day! Thank you, Lord.

taxis & tablecloths

we hired a taxi for the day to drive us a ways to an industrial area outside of delhi where we had an appointment with another vendor. the driver waited outside for a couple of hours while we conducted our business. afterwards we met our driver, who was acting a little funny but not thinking much of it, lynn and I settled in the back seat. it took a split second for our brains to get the memo that our little group of three had grown by one. apparently the newest member, a highly a confident young man whom we had never seen before, was busy buckling up in the front seat. he and the driver were looking mighty satisfied.

there was a brief moment of silence.

and the following conversation ensued between lynn and highly confident man:

lynn: um, can we help you?

highly confident man (looking real surprised that lynn would address him): yea, just catching a ride to delhi

another moment of silence.

lynn: i see. well, we are paying for this car to drive us back to delhi, so...

highly confident man: yeah, uh huh, well i got electricity work to do there, so i am needing a ride.

lynn: okay, so you are going to pay for your share of this ride?

highly confident man: uh no.

more silence.

at this point lynn is a bit speechless and translates to me the gist of the conversation. i looked at highly confident man, who flashes me a huge grin and then back at the driver. really?!? we are actually having this discussion?!?! i wave to our newest member: bye bye highly confident man. don't let the car door hit your backside on the way out...

moving on.

today we bought the mother load of scarves and stoles. they are packaged up and so we may not get photos of those. we also bought a few tablecloths, which leads me to my next topic of discussion. how adorable would this tablecloth be on a sunroom or outside table with greenery as the centerpiece? The yellow and blues in this fabric are just fabulous. unfortunately they did not have many of these left so we were only able to get two.

here's a pink and green one for a bridge table:

for mama and sister: these are the earrings from anokhi that i was telling you about. the photo does not do it justice. the flowers are turquoise with brown veins running throughout. the circle is sterling. they have earrings in green, plum and other colors. if you want me to pick u up a pair, comment below.

random thoughts to not so random people

mimi, this is your section. we found some stamps for you and attempted to try them out. the very bottom one did not turn out as well but it is three paisleys overlapping. hopefully you can make these work on your hip t-shirts (i want one in pink!). also, i thought about your t-shirts when i saw j crew's block print scarf (Spring catalog on pg.6). if you want more stamps, just either comment below or send lynn an email and we will try to find more.

dedie and bev, here is a picture of a pale pink pashmina. however, we bought some neutral ones that are gorgeous. they range from a camel color to a smokey gray. i hope to take photos of those tomorrow and get them posted. all of the ones we've purchased so far are hand-woven 100% pure pashmina.

so last night, while heading back to the flat, we decided to pick up some veggies. india style. yes, we washed them good before cooking.

lynn speaks fluent hindi and it is highly entertaining to watch her negotiate the prices. she is so expressive and doesn't back down. i love her eye rolls when the vendor names a ridiculous price. the tilting of her head when she's not gonna pay a certain price. here she is picking some veggies for us.

here are two more pictures of some of the pillows we ordered. i did not get a chance to crop the photos and pretty them up, but here they are. hopefully these pillows will help some of us redecorate without breaking the bank.

Near Marriage Proposal

I love travelling with Susan to India because she loves Indian food, loves the sights and smells and is just a great and fun travelling companion. But there is one really big thing I don't like!! Everyone here asks if she is my daughter. Now she's a lot younger, but my daughter.....? I was hoping this wouldn't happen this year since I have lost 5 lbs. and have a new short, slightly immature looking hairdo.

Tonight we were in a big market together, and I noticed her talking to a tall, handsome well-to-do looking young Indian man. I was looking at some pashmina stoles to buy, and I just kept checking on her. Sometimes we get unwanted attention here, but she looked okay. She joined me, and I was showing her the stoles and shawls and explaining what i had learned and she kept giving me funny looks.

Tall, dark and handsome was still with us and it seemed he wanted to speak to me. He approached me in the very proper manner of a refined Indian family asking me first if I were her mother and then wanting to know her name and complimenting me on her before I could even get out of my mouth that I was not nearly old enough to be her mother! Either way he sensed I was her keeper and continued to very politely express interest in her. I was so taken aback by this show of good manners rather than the usual crude language and leering looks that I stopped and listened to him as he told me that he is a dentist and appreciated her smile greatly. I looked at her to see if she was appreciating this show of fine manners just in time to see her "What in the h___ are you thinking?" glare at me. She quickly informed us both that she was very happily married, and I chimed in "Yea, she's very married!"

I was thinking how nice if she was my daughter and this very polite young man was asking for permission just to gather some information on her. Okay, what exactly was I thinking?

I guess after sitting in a warehouse in the middle of Old Delhi telling the owner exactly what we wanted that we had bought last year and being shown everything but that one thing made me just a little too open to someone who seemed honest and polite. No worries, Houston -- I will definitely not give your wife away...unless someone thinks she is my sister instead of my daughter.

arrival and pillows

ah, new delhi.

no city quite like it. it is hard to have lukewarm feelings about this complicated city for many either love or hate it.

the hate it camp will describe the ever-present smell: smoke, curry, fuel and sweat. families living on sidewalk. the slums. the very old and the very young begging. the vast difference between wealthy and poor. the seemingly absence of middle class. the maddening traffic, where chaos is king.

the love it camp will try to explain a timeless city marked by its old-world past and colorful, if not haunting, present. a city that awakens all 5 senses. marble buildings with old heavy wooden doors. open air markets with a plethora of goods. women in bright colors. smell of spices. the feel of walking on barefoot on cool marble. food not meant for the faint of heart...

today was pillow day. we met with our pillow vendor to place our spring and fall orders. for spring, we decided on yellow, robin blue and white as our predominant colors. this yellow pillow has flowers outlined in brown and white. so cute. lynn got an additional pair for her house.

i adore this robin blue pillow with its white leaves and almost mustard yellow buds. it would look so good in a sea of white pillows or against a brown couch. it is the perfect summer pillow.

i am a huge fan of white on white fabrics. it is a pure and simple look that works on so many different levels. my favorite part of this pillow is how the flowers are a bit off. not lined up in a perfect pattern, but carefree as if the petals were scattered. love, love it.

unfortunately, i am having trouble uploading the rest of the pillow photos. so i will stop now and will try again in a later post.