In My Bag

New-Blog-Update!

Hello you,
Its been a while.

I've been awful. Not a single post last month. (It kinda spoils the way my Blog Calendar looks)

BUT,

Post August 28th 2014, My life has taken a complete 180 degree turn.

Its been pretty exciting, a little unnerving, a whole lot of laughing, a few spells of crying.
But for starters, its been a satisfying experience.

Apart from the fact that I put a ton of salt in my Masala Chai, (Its not my fault! America makes Salt and Sugar look the same) There have been tons of things that have filled me with awe.

So,
Here is my new blog!
The main purpose of the blog is obvious by the name :)


Read Read.

Lots of Mumbai-missing,

Juie

To-Do

So,

In about 35 days my life is going to take a complete 180 degree turn.

Just so you know, 

I'm going to a new city in a new country to a new college in a new surrounding with new people and a new house which is actually new and sparkly clean with new windows and doors and wooden floors. 

Basically, I'm going to America - To Chicago - To study Integrated marketing Communications - At Northwestern University (Dream College-woohoo!)

And so because my life is taking a 180 degree turn there are little things in my to-do list :

1)Drink More Water

2)Talk more, Text less.

3)Sketch a lot. Sit by the lake and sketch.

4)Organize my Desk

5)Mind-Map

6)Read one good book every month

7)Be more Direct & less diplomatic

8)Create a brand

9)Start a new blog 

10)Eat weird food

11)Wear less Makeup

12)Make a mood-board

13)Sky-Dive

14)Stop dwelling , Stop worrying

15)Read about the economy and about money

16)Save 

17)Spend less on clothes and more on food

18)Get retweeted 100 times

19)Design a typeface

20)Get comfortable on Skype

21)Send postcards back home

22)Watch foreign movies in languages that I don't understand

23)Learn a foreign language

24)Fewer emoticons :(

25)Learn to use Google Maps better

26)Learn to make really good coffee

27)Be vocal, be honest.

28)Start an online portfolio

29)Do 16 Suryanamaskars and Tibetan Yoga everyday

30)At the end of these15 months read this to-do list and feel happy about yourself

Also, I've already started a new blog. Its called "New Girl in the City" and it'll be more about the experiences I have, the people I meet, School, Emotions, Names, Places, Animals and Things in Chicago.

Lots of Mumbai-love,

Juie

People

They're made of skin and bones, freshly pumped crimson running through their fragile veins, thoughts and fears and technicolor dreams that emit light through the radiant sparkles in their eyes. Remarkable, sometimes helpless, sometimes misunderstood and sometimes magnanimous. Thinking,dreaming,loving grenades with skin sometimes sun-bronzed  and sometimes pale, some white and some in varying shades of brown. Some wish upon shooting stars and eyelashes.Some make machines, some are machines, while some are free in their own madness. 

Mostly fire with a crust of ice. They have the depths of the ocean within them .They all err sometimes, in fact they're made to err. Personification of the most perfect form of imperfection. 

They all have their ways to feel free.To Blow away like dandelion seeds? 
Some sing and dance and write, some laze with a good smelling old book, some rave and some choose intoxication.But free? That's an anomaly! They're strangled by society, culture and religion. Sometimes they're strangled by the very thought of being free. 
Their minds are trampolines and they all have invisible wings,believe me they do! They all fly in the wee hours before twilight to places that they want to see. Places where they feel free. Little caverns full of love and light. 
They fly in wakefulness too, through parts of their mind that they are ignorant about. 

You know what affects them the most? The same living, walking, temporarily beating and pumping material that they're made of. They all hate to hurt but they hurt each other. Some forgive and some don't. Some dwell and some forget. 

They build empires sometimes, earn a lot of green crisp paper, some live simply in little homes full of belonging. Some have never heard of love. They all suffer in the same quantity. Some are homeless and some live in white marble palaces.Some wear rubber gloves and have grease in their hair and some have a diamond band tied tightly to their wrist. Some eat sugar cubes and bread, they drink some water and fill their stomachs. Others fine dine in style. But they're all starved.

Looking for something that they don't know off. They know there's something out there. They don't know the shape, the color, the texture or the feeling. But they know its there. 
They're made of hope, people. 

Huge wells of hope and that's how they survive. 

The Mind

Yesterday I promised that I'll post my Half finished drawing soon :')

If someone asked me what my mind looked like,

I'd like to call this drawing "The Mind."

"Coz after all there's black and white and everything in between,

 It's so convoluted and a lot goes unseen,

Before the daylight dawns , before the twilight ends,

A million dreams turn real between the rainbow bends,

The ones with wild eyes and wilder hearts they dream,

 the ones that know that its not as difficult as it'll seem,

And they say,

It all comes to life."

My Fine-liners

It was 9:30 pm.

I finished dinner.

It was yummy. The mother had made Chaat and she sure knows her way around it because she never goes wrong. 

I had the last sip of my lemonade and I went to my room.

As I glanced around looking for my laptop I saw my sketchbook.

Bam! There was a moment of sudden desperation and energy. After a rather tiring day, I picked up my wallet and I rushed to my living room and mumbled that I need to buy something and that its really urgent. My parents were a little taken aback but I left no space for a conversation and ran down the staircase. They surely wondered what could be so urgent at 9:30 pm.

I reached the stationary shop and I picked my favorite pack of Stabilo Fineliners, paid and left. 

I went home with a huge smile and a brand new pack of colors :') 

This is what happens when you follow your calling.In that moment all I wanted to do was sketch. The feeling completely took over my mind and I couldn't even resist it. There was no procrastination in that moment and no boredom. I didn't even care about the polka dotted Pajamas I was wearing in a street full of people. Because there was something I wanted that made me happy. There was happiness. 

Maybe that is why they say,

The things you're passionate about, They're not random,

They're your calling.You make time for those things however busy you are and however tight your schedule is. Those are the things that keep you going :')

Go paint a picture, sing a song or read that book. Don't do it for someone, do it for yourself! Hopefully Ill sketch, sing and write a lot too because in the end its just the happy days that matter!

A half-drawn sketch that I'll post soon,

Juie :)

D.I.Y Fridays - Earrings

Friday mornings can be liberating  when you have pretty stuff to make.

I have a soft corner for earrings. Big droopy chandeliers with emeralds. Tiny sapphire studs. A simple diamond hoop. Earrings can completely change your outfit and in my case my mood as well. Wearing a new pair of earrings can make the day seem perfect, trust me!  I'd advocate wearing them over a cutesy pair of pajamas too. You never know, you could create magic ;)

Anyhoo, I made big stud earrings today.
The kinds you'd see at fancy stores at malls and spend a fortune over?
I made 8 pairs of those for not more than 100 bucks each. 

You can do it too!

What you need:

1) Pretty buttons in pairs. You'd get them at any Lace store.
 There are loads at Santacruz, Lokhandwala and Manish Market.

2)Big Golden flat sequins. (You'd get these at the same stores)

3)Feviquick - One minute adhesive

4)A pair of scissors

5) A wirecutter

6)Earring needles/ Earring posts- The part that goes through your pierced hole (You get these at many shops that sell jewelry material)

7)Earring backs/holders

Here's what you do next :

Pick a pair of pretty buttons! There's a lot to choose from at the stores. This is what I picked out:

1) Buttons have hoops at the back. Gently remove those with a wire cutter.

2) Cut open a packet of the sequins and cut a sequin into the shape of the earring.It can have rough edges as it is just to make the surface flat.

3) Apply a thin layer of feviquik on the edges and firmly paste the sequin on it. Hold it in place for a minute.

4) Place the earring post in the center and fasten it with Feviquik.



5) You're almost done! Let it dry for about 10 minutes and secure it with the earring backs!

You've got yourself a new pair of earrings!



They look really pretty on wearing too ! 




Here's to creating lots of pretty things!

 A treasurebox of love and a new pair of sparkly baubles,

Juie :')