Painting Poems

A Haathi Chaap scrapbook, Potli wooden blocks from Kadam, multi-hued watercolors, a black pigment liner, and a few words waiting to be strung together - were my tools of the trade.

I'm sure most of you know of Haathi Chaap, the folks who celebrate Elephant Poo. With that they create organic stationery, which sport the coolest of logos, and I like the post script on their homepage ... "No, it doesn't smell of poo. Really!" :-)

Incidentally, here's a fun picture I caught at the Singapore zoo.

And so,
my Haathi Chaap scrapbook flaunting the mammal's behind, and tied together with a ribbon, was waiting for the right inspiration. So were the hugely popular wooden blocks from Kadam.

I penned down two small poems.

One, of a tree calling out to his feathered friends. 

And another of a parrot's song 

And did I have fun splashing color on these beautifully textured pages!

Am linking on to the weekly story @Colours Dekor.

Savouring the last of summer

A week's holiday at home in Kerala is a rejuvenizer beyond compare. Life is relaxed, and each time I go down to my hometown, I manage to find time in abundance to sit back or walk around and savour the slow pace and nature's bounty. While this part of the world awaits monsoons, I relished the last of this summer.

My mom had cleaned up the vase to set in fresh flowers of the day ... what she tossed out of the window as "yesterday's" looked beautiful on the ground as well.

Curry leaves for the daily tadka come from the backyard. The shrub planted long ago in the backyard has flourished into a tall tree, what with the ample ground water, nutrient-rich soil and sunshine. This season, the tree is done flowering, and is in bloom with bunches of fruits.

My father had lovingly planted a cherry plant long ago. We hardly had hopes of it bearing fruit, but this time it did, and how!

I see him smiling through this freshly plucked branch.

The 60-year old mango tree in front of the house has done its deed for the year. This year's supplies of mangoes were collected, some sold off, some relished at home itself. Its that time of the year when within minutes of sweeping, the tree gets back to weaving a carpet of shed brown leaves on the ground.

I found these wicked nail extensions (thanks to a Gulmohar flower), and grinned delightfully to myself. I probably did this last on my evening walks with cousins nearly fifteen years ago.

Ah :-)
Once monsoon sets in, there's no respite. It pours until you wish the rains away. But as kids we never wished it away ... what better time to race paper boats and splash in muddy puddles.
Like those days, this monsoon I plan to mock-squeal at all noisy thunderstorms, I hope the child in you does too! Good day!

The Wild Unknown

"So I cut off my hair, 

and I rode straight away 

to the Wild Unknown country, 

where I could not go wrong"

Must say Bob Dylan's words on their homepage jolted A Sunny Yellow Window out of its three-month long hibernation. Here are some wild nature-inspired prints and products from The Wild Unknown, the brainchild of Brooklyn artist Kim Krans.

LOVE botanical and animal prints. And so my heart goes out to elegant artwork by a company which is "focused on making simple, thoughtful, handcrafted goods." They hope these "wild unknown items bring moments of solitude and wonder, always."

... like this lovely calendar which is "filled with owls, falcons, baby rabbits, kestrels, and more. Lyrics by Neil Young, Yoko Ono, Bob Marley and Van Halen. This epic calendar pulls at the heartstrings of the rabbit and the hawk hidden away in all of us."

A kids room would love this on its wall, don't you think? Bear, kitty, bird


Intricate drawings on an ABC Dream Book in which each page talks of one letter.


Ferns and feathers


A feather-wreath print


They are available in a few stores across the US, and they do ship internationally. Catch them on Twitter or Facebook.

(All pictures from the company website. And I've borrowed heavily from the text on the website, in order not to disturb the symphony!)
Good day.

Indian Bazaar

Local bazaars never cease to fascinate ...

(Scenes caught on my lens at a market in Gangtok, Sikkim)
Linking up to Mosaic Monday at the Little Red House, and The Creative Exchange.
To a colorful week ahead!

Young, Wild and Free - A Collage from Yesteryears

Today is about reminiscence.
About the truckloads of fond memories you bring back from college and hostel life, and sometimes memorabilia... like this collage I made in my first year of undergrad school. It was on my wall then, moved with me, got packed in aluminium trunks, got unpacked, unrolled, pinned back on the wall as I moved rooms after each year ended... till the last year of study.

Looking at it now, I'm reminded of those things which used to excite me then, what appeared "cool" then, a celebration of the first year with new friends, and a break into life in a college hostel.

Red had to be the predominant color, signifying well, defiance. The red handmade sheet from Auroville's outlets in Pondicherry came handy! And all the teen magazines, newspapers were scoured and dissected for interesting pictures.

Here are portions of the whole...

Veerappan was smart I thought ;-) for being RobinHood

I guess this put the whole effort in a nutshell... I'm young, so is my world!

It was the beginning of the www exploration

Somehow, a kathakali also fit into the scheme of things

And here's the whole collage...

I cannot put this up on my wall now, of course, since we've grown out of "go punk" and "go funk"! Better-half S laughed it off :D
But it will always stay with me as a happy reminder of the years when friends and I first tasted Young-Wild-and-Free..

I'm sure you've got stories to tell as well ... what have you folks treasured as memories of your yesteryears?