Manchester

I spent a few days in Manchester this week, and had the chance to walk around and explore!

I'm used to the over crowding of London, so Manchester was a nice surprise! It's quite similar to London, just without all the people!

We went to China Town in Manchester, which is supposedly one of the largest in Europe ( I read it online somewhere so don't hold me to it). The only other China Town I have been to is the one in London, so if I'm comparing it to the one in London, then it definitely was bigger!

Whilst in China Town, we had lunch at this Pho restaurant. I can't remember the name of the restaurant but it was next door to a 'long legs' massage parlour. The restaurant looks deceptively small, as you have to go down a set of stairs as the actual restaurant is in what seems to be the basement.

Around the corner from the Pho restaurant was The Manchester Art Gallery. I'm not an avid fan of art galleries, but it was free so we decided to go.

Whilst some of the art work was very grand and exquisite (i'm not good at describing art) my favourite piece was this Zardozi piece, just because I gotta represent my brown heritage.























We also went to the Northern Quarter, this has some great cafes and bars and as we had researched before hand, we had afternoon tea at The Teacup Kitchen. This place was amazing, it was incredibly busy, and as we went in the afternoon, a lot of the cakes had sold out such as the Rainbow cake.

We had the almond and coconut carrot cake, with some indian chai (it wasn't legit indian desi chaa, but it was served with warm milk, which was a plus) as well as the pistachio cake with the rosey grey tea, which is a fruity tea infused with flowers. Both sets complimented the cakes well, as we had asked for some recommendations to go with our cakes. I really wanted to try to Vanilla Cacao, but this had sold out, so maybe next time!

For dinner, we then ended the evening at Wimslow Road which is referred to as Curry Mile. This is basically the food equivalent to Southall and Green st etc.

We had dinner at Mughli's, and it looked great from both outside and in. I didn't take any pictures of the food, because lets face it, i'm brown, so it was nothing new. I also generally didn't take any pictures that evening, so the following pictures from Mughli are not mine.

All in all, Manchester is a very nice place to visit, and it's a lot cheaper than London!

Aashni + Co Wedding Show

The Aashni + Co store recently hosted a Asian Bridal show at The Dorchester, which is a luxury Hotel in London's Mayfair.

I really wanted to go, but I didn't in the end, mainly because I'm not getting married anytime soon, and also because I don't really have anyone to go with that shares my love for Asian designers.

There were a range of designers there, and the following are some of my favourite pieces from some of the designers.

Tarun Tahiliani is my favourite brand, the pieces are so luxurious, and is probably why I became so obsessed with Indian designers and fashion. Some of the pieces are so ethereal and traditional yet so contemporary. 

Varun Bahl is another designer that blends the vintage with the contemporary. Some of his pieces seem very dark and romantic.

Sabyasachi is another favourite of mine, especially the bridal collections. The textiles and colours are so bold and some pieces are very vintage-esque. 

This blog post is very pointless, but I just wanted to share some gorgeous pictures and lust after the clothes. This actually took a lot longer than expected to write up, as I got distracted when searching for my favourite pieces. (obviously, none of these pictures are mine)

I've chosen some quite heavy designs as my favourites as I was talking about the Bridal show, and so I thought I would choose images in keeping with the theme.

Impromptu kindle case

I'm not gonna lie, I'm a book nerd. I love reading books, and have recently gotten into it again. I never liked the idea of using kindles and other e readers, and I was one of those people that liked paper books, as it felt a bit more real. 

However commuting to work every day in a train, and lugging The Game of Throne books with me, got a little annoying. The books are so heavy, and teamed up with the other crap I have in my bag, means that my bag gets a tad heavy to lug around on the tubes and trains all day! 

So I asked for a Kindle, and I got a Kindle! 

I previously made a macbook sleeve, so decided to make a kindle sleeve too. I've seen these kind of styles on Etsy, and it was a pretty simple design, so I got to work! 

As I'm too poor cheap I usually try to upscale, or I'll just keep an eye out for cheap material. 

The lime green material, was an impulse buy top for £2, bought in the sale.

The geometric fabric, was just some scraps I had left over. I got this fabric for free when I went to Southall a while ago. And the ghota (ribbon) was purchased when we went to Upton Park a while ago.

I love the colours and think they go really well together, in between the two fabrics I also placed some quilted material just to give the kindle some protection.

This was a little difficult, and I did have to get some help from my mum, mainly because at the time I made this, my sewing machine was out of action, and so I had to use my mums industrial sewing machine.

I love the colours for the sleeve, and this definitely brightens my commute to and from work!

DIY necklace hanger Pt 2

I have a lot of statement necklaces, and a while ago, you will remember that I started hanging them on an old door hanger. However I had too many necklaces for it, and they were way too heavy.

So instead I got inspiration from Pinterest, and made a necklace hanger thing? The only thing I had to buy was the chipboard from wilkinsons which was £2, everything else I already had from previous projects.

I was pretty happy with the finished product, now I just need to get someone to hang it on the wall for me!

September wedding- #Picky 2014

After months of planning, two weeks in 45 degree heat, and endless late nights, the Big day finally arrived on Sunday.

The whole of the week before was the lead up to the wedding, we had the Chura ceremony, the Maiyaan, and then finally the wedding. Not to mention all the late nights preparing and making food for the various functions that were held during the week! The wedding was absolutely great, it was an amazing day, and very emotional, but I won't go too much into that.

There was a lot of drama in getting the dresses for the reception delivered to the UK on time, at one point the tailors actually asked us if we could postpone the days of the pre wedding and reception- not being aware that everything has to be booked months in advance here!

We did finally receive the dresses like a week before, and so everything did turn out well in the end! 

We received a lot of compliments on the dresses, and we probably wouldn't wear these again as they are, so we also asked the tailors to make us a pyjami and chunni too (dupatta), so that after the dresses won't go to waste and can be worn as an anarkali. 

Our plan is to get my mum to alter the length of the dress, to make it a little shorter, so it will look more like an anarkali!

This whole outfit is from various parts of Punjab: Ludhiana, Amritsar and Jalandhar. 

Over the top ootn

It was my cousins pre wedding party last night. And about a week ago, we finally received our outfits that were posted from india. When I first saw the dress, I wasn't that keen on it, I actually wasn't even that sold on it when we were getting them made in india- it was sparkly and pink, which is the exact opposite of me. But we were really short on time, and a decision had to be made quick, so I panicked and said I would get it made in pink. My sister got it made in purple. Me my sister and two nieces are the bridesmaids, I guess? So me and the younger niece got pink ( because we're both the youngest) and my sister and other niece got purple (because they're the oldest- I hope that makes sense!)

Anyway, the outfit did look a lot better on, specially because the venue was kind of dark! Due to the venue being dark, and also me trying to socialise with all the aunties etc, I didn't really take any good pictures. So I took one this morning, so you can get an idea of the outfit. 

The whole outfit was pretty much from India, except the earrings,which I bought from the sales in New Look, beginning of this year, and the hair grip, I think it's called, which is my sisters. 

We received a lot of compliments last night, which was nice as we weren't that happy with the dresses, the outfits for the wedding day on the other hand, are actually amazing. And I can't wait to wear it next week!

We also got our make up done from Mac last night, in our local shopping centre. I have previously gotten my make up done from Mac once before, years ago for my prom! Mac charge £30 to get your make up done in an hour. I think it's a really great service, as the make up artists use mac products, and at the end of it, you basically get to buy £30 worth of products that they have used on you, so for the £30 not only do you get your make up done, but you also get to take some new Mac products home!

I'm completely useless with make up, I can only put eye liner on thats it, but my eye liner skills are pretty amazing. On the other hand, thanks to Pinterest and the endless youtube videos, I am pretty good with my hair, so I did my hair myself. I found a Pinterest tutorial, and just did that. It was actually as simple as it looks, and I even back combed my hair for the first time, which was pretty interesting! 

Back to the interesting stuff, with my Mac make up, I chose to get some lip primer, and lip stick. I am very big on lipsticks right now, and chose a matt lipstick. 

I don't have the lipstick to hand right now, so I don't know what it's called- sorry!

Late night ladoo operation

As I have mentioned before, my cousin is getting married this year, in September to be exact. which is the end of this month!

Things have been getting pretty busy lately with wedding preparations etc. As the wedding is coming up fast, a few weeks ago all the women at home, plus a few of my mum and massis friends decided to take the day to make some ladoos to give out with the wedding cards.

I've always wondered how you make ladoos, and it is actually pretty simple, its basically just a gram flour paste, and sugar. Oh and some food colouring to get the colour.

I say all the women in the house were busy making them, but in all honesty, I was just there to eat them. That warm laddo mixture, right before you make the ladoo shape is the best.

This was just one table of ladoos, the whole kitchen was filled with them, as well as the coffee table, and since this picture was taken, we've made more batches on 2 seperate occassions. So it's safe to say I am getting a little sick of them!