Tweet Tweet....

Hubby came home with a package he picked up in the mail,

wrapped pretty in a brown-paper - full of texture

and beautifully stamped with little birdies in teal :),

all the way from Daly City, California........

my orders from Birdnerd are here !

I fell in love with Chelsea Groves' birds the moment

I bumped into her shop, while randomly browsing through Etsy one morning.

The bright blue ink is hand screen printed on a heavy linen,

the European Starling is a splash of blue in my

red-brown-earthy-toned living area.

The Cedar Waxwing is a beautiful piece in a very Indian red.

The item description read 'Introducing bird art that you can hug!'....so true.

Even the tags threaded around the little birdies look so organic and cute:

I am totally loving the back of the plushies just as much,

printed fabrics in springy colours loaded with more texture.

'One of the things that makes me happiest in the world is when I am outdoors and a bird perches close by on a branch and silently stares at me before flying away.

It's as if all of nature has stopped for a moment and said,

"Well, hello there. I see that you exist.'' '

- Chelsea, from her website

She has an exhaustive collection of her artwork on FlickR.

Ruby-Crowned Kinglet resting on our CD rack/library at the moment......

You can read all about the kind of work Chelsea does

and her techniques here. Her paintings, collages (which she likes to refer to as

''painting with paper'') are so intricate and full of delicious detail.

I especially like her linocut prints,

this print on Thai Unry paper is one of my favourites.

I had to make this post as soon as the parcel arrived,

our home is tweeting a happy tweet right now.

Thank you Chelsea :).......

a bit of a birnerd myself, I feel totally pampered today.

first few captures

Last Sunday, we had a musical 'baithak' (बैठक in Hindi means lounge,

in this context means an informal function where musicians get together and sing/play),

at a friend's place in the quaint Swiss countryside.

The Geetobitan (referred to as 'Boi' or 'THE book' by Bengalies),

the collection of poems/songs by Rabindranath Tagore.

The harmonium is the traditional /popular/favourite instrument for most

Bongs when singing any genre of folk/Tagore's songs.

Arnab's been playing the sitar since he was about 6-7.

He has got back to playing after almost 17 years

(since he performed at one of his college events)!

These last few pics I took at home at one of his riyaaz (practice) sessions.

Here is a short video I found on Youtube

of a beautiful bandish in raag Hameer

rendered by one of the finest Sitar players of our times:

Ustadji Shahid Parvez-ji

A little update from my Etsy shop is that I have some new listings,

take a look here. Hope you're having a good week :), keep well.

New friend

Will post photos soon :)

~Have a great week ahead~

Ganeshji at home

Over the last few years, we have brought home 'Ganesh-ji's....

This is from one of our early morning visits to Sidhhivinayak temple

in Mumbai, the beauty of the murti (idol) at the temple is captivating.

This next one here is a tiny silver Ganesha

that was a gift from the lady at Chamba Lama,

the most famous curio shop in Kolkata.

Not just us three sisters, even dad received a tiny Ganesh-ji

after one of our generous shopping sprees at the store!

It has a beautiful Bhutanese mantra intricately carved all around.

Some of my jewellery and artifacts from the shop in the backdrop :)

I have been visiting this store from my college days..

spent hours (and most of my pocket money at that time) at the store,

which boasts of an awesome selection of

silver jewellery and Tibetan curio.

Even now when I go back to Kolkata,

a visit to Chamba Lama is indispensable.

This little Ganesha is made of sandalwood and gifted to us by Mr. Suryani when

we visited his store/factory in Mysore to purchase

a Ganesh-murti (photo later in this post) with my first salary:)

This is Ganesh-ji carved in stone, from Orissa craftsmen,

collected at a handicraft fair in Mumbai.

Arnab and I had gone with my mom. I loved their detail and form

so much... I had to take home one; it was only after

I had picked Him up that Maa looked and said,

'You picked a Ganesha with his trunk bent towards the right!'.

We are not superstitious but she could not help remark that

apparently it is supposed to be lucky and is very difficult to find

(most Ganesh idols have their trunks bend towards the left,

Siddhivinayak is another exception).

This is the Ganesh-murti we brought from the

Suryani brothers' factory in Mysore in 2004.

And here is the latest addition to our family of Ganeshas,

I painted him on a little block of wood.

Size: 14.5 cm x 24 cm (rounded corners)

Medium: Acrylic paint and acrylic ink

The vahana (mount) of Lord Ganesha is referred to as 'Mooshika'.

In the Hindu pantheon, each deity is seated on a mount(vahana)

which always has a symbolical meaning.

The mouse is apparently used as a symbol of greed and inquisitiveness.

Our mooshika here seems quite controlled and poised, thanks to Ganesh-ji!

The text reads ''श्री गणेशाय नमः '' (Shree Ganehsaya Namah)

(Meaning: 'Gan': people, 'Eshaya':loved by; He who is loved by everyone)

which is so true for Ganesha!