that's my kind of mrs.

if know me well enough, then you know about my obsession with all things yellow.  usually people grow out of colour obsessions; mine has stayed strong since elementary school.  it's gotten to the point where my parents groan whenever the word yellow comes out of my mouth.

oh well.  anyway, i came across this post about mrs. meyer:
It is with pure pleasure that I introduce the lovely Mrs. Meyer - she's super sweet, seriously - I'm no liar! She's got a funny thing for lemons - so much so that she imports them from Yemen! Although she's mostly sweet at times she can be a little sour - but her moodiness is usually short lived, and gone within an hour. And for that matter she keeps all kinds of sugar laying around - she prefers it in cube form and stocks it by the pound. She enjoys partaking a good lemon drop - at which point she'll pick up the phone and call you to talk. Mainly, she likes to chat about all things yellow - and for the most part your conversations are pretty mellow. And if you have an ailment, she's got just the thing - a hot spiked cup of lemon zing! According to her, lemons are great even when you're sober - not to mention the perfect thing for a Mrs hangover! She's a fabulous Mrs, despite being a little tart - she's a loyal friend who'll love you with all her lemony Mrs heart.

i only hope to become a mrs. like mrs. meyer! currently i have periods of bitterness more so than tartness. who knows, my sour days will come with age. kiwi certainly has a lot to look forward to! ;)

from mrs. lilien styling house

rsvp cards

for the invites, dad didn't want to put number invited right on the invitation itself.  instead, we made space for it on the rsvp card.

i really like how this rsvp card is worded:
"we reserved ______ seats for you"

wish i had seen this before! it's an easy way to make the people you invite to your wedding feel just that little bit special.

from oh so beautiful paper

the hijra tradition

i just read this blog post about hijras.

when i was fourteen, we travelled to india with my foi's family to see part of the country properly. we travelled mostly the north and west parts of india. while visiting the ganges (a holy river), there was a group of 4-5 hijras that followed us as we walked through the streets of haridwar (i think that's the city we were in.. i don't quite remember :S). now, i don't remember if we gave them any money or just kept walking, but i do remember my fuaji not realising they were hijras. he just thought they were female beggars asking for money.

a few years back, my oldest bhai got married in india. during his santhak (pre-wedding ceremony), a hijra showed up asking for money. dad came up to me after the negotiations to point out the hijra from the window telling me that one did in fact show up. i was incredibly disappointed i missed it! had i known, i would have taken video of the incident. apparently they had the hijra sign a letter stating that money has been given to a person of the hijra community in case another shows up later.

i've been told that if a wedding has happened overseas, hijras will show up to the family's house in india demanding money, otherwise they will curse the newly weds. sometimes a hijra will show up even a month after the wedding asking for money. this doesn't actually happen in north america mainly because hijras don't really exist here (well to my knowledge anyway..). hijras are a unique category that is different from transgender since hijras don't perceive themselves as a man or a woman.

maybe in a warped honour of this "tradition", we could have drag queens during the cocktail hour! how much fun would that be? or, going on a previous idea, we could have one of the drag queens be a fortune teller. i would die of jealousy if someone pulled this off during an indian reception.

lakme fashion week

one of india's famous fashion weeks, lakme fashion week, occurred earlier this month. i finally got a chance to look at the galleries (i should really be doing my taxes.. sssshhh..) and they have some fantastic pieces!

Abdul Halder	Abdul Halder
Anand Kabra	Anita Dongre
Anita Dongre	Anita Dongre
Babita M	Debarun Mukherjee
Debarun Mukherjee	Lecoanet Hemant
Lecoanet Hemant	Lina Tipnis
Malini Ramani	Narendra Kumar
Nidhi and Divya	Nikasha Tawadey
Nikasha Tawadey	Nikasha Tawadey
Payal Singhal	Rimi Nayak
Riyaz Gangji	Riyaz Gangji
Rocky S	Rocky S
Satya Paul	Satya Paul
Satya Paul	Satya Paul
Satya Paul	Shantanu and Nikhil
Shradha Murarka	Suneet Varma
Sashikant Katari Naidu	Sashikant Katari Naidu
Vijay Balhara	Pooja Kapoor
Sandeep Sarkar	Surbhi Chawla

did i ever mention how much i love satya paul's saris? one day i will be the proud owner of his genius.

and then there were the pieces on the runway i just don't understand.. that list is for another day, once i finish my taxes that is (oh.. and my resume).

up, up, and away

once when picking kiwi up from the airport, i greeted him in the arrivals area with a heart shaped balloon. it certainly got a lot of looks from people, especially the conservative brown indian people waiting for their family to land. i had considered suggesting to kiwi we have heart balloons for our engagement shoot. you know, add a bit of whimsy to our pictures.

these photos makes me sway towards a getting a few balloon pictures taken:




(water balloons.. GENIUS!)

from kumari photo & design, jonathan ong, sarah yates photography, daniel kiyoi

gorgeous mehndi

i love mehndi. i draw it more often then not, especially when i'm trying to figure something out. it's very relaxing. this mehndi artist, bisha mistry, is awesome! her designs are incredibly gorgeous. she's certainly an inspiration for my doodling..

gosh, i wish she was in canada. i would have hired her in a heartbeat to do my mehndi.

lemon shortbread cookies

i made lemon shortbread cookies with lemon icing! they turned out so delicious i can't stop eating them :S

the only thing i'd do different is the icing.. it's a wee bit too sweet. i'm not sure if icing is really necessary anyway.



LEMON SHORTBREAD COOKIES
recipe from marzipan adapted from martha stewart cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp table salt
1 cup unsalted butter, at cool room temperature
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
zest of one lemon

Sift together flour and salt into a bowl. Put butter into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until fluffy, 3-5 minutes, scraping down the sides of bowl when needed. Gradually add the confectioners' sugar and lemon zest; beat until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture all at once; mix until just combined. Shape dough into a small, flat round and wrap with plastic. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F with rack in the center of oven. Roll dough out to 1/4-inch thickness, using a small amount of flour on the work surface and rolling pin to prevent sticking. Cut into desired shapes and place cookies on a Silpat-lined baking sheet. Place the cookie sheet in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes. Bake until cookies a just starting to turn golden brown, about 20-25 minutes. Cool completely on the cookie sheet.

LEMON ICING
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 tbsp unsalted butter, at cool room temperature
lemon juice from 1/4 lemon

Whisk together sugar and butter. Add lemon juice and whisk until smooth and fluffy. Spread onto cooled cookies.

the interesting part about this recipe is after each stage, you place the dough in the fridge. the steam resulting from the cold butter melting during the baking process creates tiny, little air pockets (like in puff pastry). it totally makes this cookie so very soft and crumbly. apparently when reading a bit of science related baking, unsalted butter is better for the flakiness than salted butter (has a lower boiling point).

shortbread dough does freeze well.. maybe i can make logs in advance.

terrarium centrepiece

plants are usually a lovely contemporary look for centrepieces. these lightbulb terrariums are so chic looking.. it would be nice to place a group of these in the middle of a table to double as favours.

they could certainly start some interesting conversations. i can see it now.. a hipster sitting there discussing how this centrepiece idealises a consumer's relationship to nature. perhaps interpret how nature can co-exist with a ubiquitous technology modern humanity cannot live without. or how consumerism has become the most common connection to the natural world.

anyway, back to reality.. they're really simple to make.. i think the hardest part is just emptying out the bulbs without resulting in bits of glass embedded into your palms.

i really like these. so cute!

from etsy - tiny terra

colourfully delicious

oh i totally approve.  whenever bhabhi and i make pancakes on a weekend mum and dad visit, we dye the batter a random colour.  next time, i think we should make rainbows.

oooh, maybe one morning during all the pre-wedding festivities.

from thoughtfully simple

wedding diet

it's +18°C today. you know what that means.. daily jogs! nothing too aggressive, just easy strides. i jog to music.. so one song walking, one song jogging, twenty minutes only. i'm not trying to lose weight, just keep my weight down. i tend to snack a lot when i'm stressed. with my long to-do list at work and my longer to-do list at home, i'm even snacking in the car on my way home :S

food wise, i should probably go back to the things that really gave me the most energy and fewer cravings last year:

• lemon and ginger tea
• salad with my homemade balsamic dressing
• cottage cheese with maple syrup
• veggie sausages (specifically these yves bavarian sausage - LOTS of iron and protein!)

with four months to go, i should really get my butt in gear.

live food

what makes food incredibly memorable at any event is when it's interactive. food being made in front of yours eyes, you must admit, is fun to watch and is subconsciously reassuring. (we've walked through the kitchen of our venue, so don't worry - it's clean to ramsay's standards times two!)

a couple of restaurants in ottawa makes naans in front of you.  perhaps this isn't so easy to arrange unless you had a reception in a restaurant that has this feature?

fresh jalebi and fresh fafda - if they can be made on the streets, can't they be made during a wedding?

from cosmin danila