A Special Gift for all my readers!!

Gifts are always welcome, in whatever form they may be. So I thought I would give out this special gift to all my readers and visitors as a sign of appreciation for visiting my blog (for new visitors) and for being there for me through thick and thin (for my old friends).

I am offering a flat 15% discount coupon for my store CraftVogue, http://www.craftvogue.com/ for all my readers, old and new. The Discount Coupon code is RT15. I hope with this little effort I can make your holiday shopping a little more enjoyable....Happy Shopping!

If there is anything you would like to tell me, feel free to drop me a mail at priyanka(at)craftvogue(dot)com

A Ray of Hope!

Today is a special day for me. After my site's official launch, there has been not much activity as per sales and I was getting a little worried and anxious as to if I had taken the wrong step (I have put in all my savings into this). I understand that in online business, it is not easy to grab attention, even for the Search Engines, forget about customers. Every morning I wake up with a hope that today will be a better day and as the day progresses, the hope also dies out.

But today is a special day. Not that I got my first order, but my first enquiry!. I know it isn't much of a thing to rejoice, but at least I know that someone somewhere is interested in what I am selling and has taken the initiative to mail me and enquire for more. This is a great feeling and I thought I should share it with you..my readers who have been with me all this while.

I hope this ray of hope turns into a full daylight and more and more people start noticing CraftVogue and use its products.

The CraftVogue Newsletter

Days of Hardwork and Determination have brought us to this point in time. My long cherished dream of doing something of my own without forgetting my social responsibilities has finally come true. Although sales are yet to pick up and people are yet to know more about it, I am sure with the right motivation and the right intentions, God will surely take me ahead and help me make a difference that I want to....towards the society, towards the environment and towards my family. Please help me promote my site and let your friends and family know about it. Here is a link to my Newsletter: http://www.craftvogue.com/newsletter/ so that you know more about what CraftVogue is and why it is here.
Lastly, a very Happy Diwali to all my readers and hope this Festival of Lights brightens up every one's life.

And we are ready to go!!

Hey friends, Thank you for your continued support. After months of perseverence and hard work, I am finally all set to get started and bring to you some of the most exquisite art forms from the remote corners of India. With this effort, I hope we (you and me together) can do our bit towards Rural Employment and also the Environment. I hope you will enjoy the products and give me an opportunity to serve you. Do visit my store http://www.craftvogue.com/ and also let your friends and family know about this new store in town.

See you there!

Happy Birthday to Me!! :)

Happy Birthday to me...happy birthday to me.....happy birthday to dear me...happy birthday to me....clap clap clap.....
:)
Sadly, while all relatives and friends have been wishing me since morning...my parents forgot my birthday :'(
I think everything changes with time.....there was a time when Mom used to be up since mornign preparing my Birthday Party and today she doesn't even remember to wish me..... :(

Caught in the wrong relation?

She had everything she had wanted from life--a good job, loving parents, cool friends, interesting lovers, and the best of all FREEDOM--what else could a girl of today's generation ask for. For her, her life was perfect and she was happy the way it was. The only thing she went wrong were her one-night stands and affairs which landed her up with guys who weren't quite right. Of course, she did come across some good ones but she could not understand their value then.

Then one fine day she gets committed to an old school friend who co-incidently was just the opposite of her---conservative, reserved, society-conscious, never indulged in anything wrong---a complete No-No of what she had been doing and believing so far. Everyone was amazed how she fell in love with such a person. They felt maybe it was time for her to understand life more seriously and leave behind her playful nature. As they say, Opposites Attract; they believed he is the Mr. Right for her for whom she had been waiting so long.


But Alas! He wasn't......they got married after a lot of opposition from both families but immediately after that problems started cropping up. He started showing his colors. The girl who once was never seen in dresses other than shorts, jeans, skirts was now made to wear traditional Indian dresses even while sleeping! Her life was getting miserable. Change is always welcome in life...but change such as this is more of a curse than a welcome note.


The most surprising thing is the poor girl is not even allowed to go to her parents for a week's stay since he believes that after marriage a girl should forget her parental house. How ridiculous! How can one forget the people coz of whom she is with him today???


I really wish she could step out of this mess and start a new life. But even that seems a far cry now with a new life breathing inside here. I don't know what advice to give to this very special friend of mine but surely pray to God to give her all the strength and happiness to make her life better.

Fan my company on Facebook

Hey friends... as a step towards promoting my company and its mission, I have created a Facebook page and will be really happy if you can Fan my Company and help me in my new venture. Fanning me there will also ensure that you will be the first one to know all the latest updates on the company and be a part of my Family.
I hope to see you all there. We are already a one big blogging family......I hope you will support me in this new venture and let your friends and family know about it. :)

Narrow Escape!!

It was a regular morning....I was preparing breakfast for my Father-in-law while getting myself ready for the day and cleaning the house. Just then the phone rang. It was my husband. His voice sent a shiver down my spine and the next words that he spoke totally took me aback. "P (that's what he calls me)......I met with an accident. The car is smashed. I have been hit by a bus and a college going kiddo has been killed in this mishap". I could not believe my ears. I slowly asked..."Are you safe?"......his words brought a sigh of relief...."I am".

The bus was speeding in heavy rain and lost its control and went and hit a college going teenager while he was standing to cross the road. The boy was spot dead and the bus went ahead and hit our car. Thankfully, my husband had his seatbelt fastened and while the bus came right upto the driver's seat, my husband had a Narrow Escape by an inch!!! God bless the teenager's soul and may he rest in peace and may He give his family the strength to cope with this misfortune.....Amen!

Seeking designers....anyone interested?

I am in dire need of a designer who can help me with some designing stuff like screensavers, banners, widgets. The designer will be given full credit for his works on the site and also a link back to his blog/website/portfolio. For now, I may not be able to pay up for the services due to the current economic scene but his works will get full exposure on the site and will thus help him to popularize his skill. If anyone would be interested, please contact me at priyanka (at)craftvogue(dot)com.

Look forward to some eager responses......

Sorry........for being out of touch! :(

I know I haven't been posting lately and there aren't any updates coming in as well from the development side of my business. But this is all due to the strenuous work schedule I am having currently. I have been constantly in and out of my attache travelling to different places every weekend and meeting the social organizations who will be my suppliers. I have so much to speak and share with you all, but so little time to do so. Whatever little time I manage for myself, I am so tired that I have hardly any energy to do anything. Please excuse me for this and I promise to be back with so much to read........I know you will stand by me as you have always done....

Love you all :)

Staying abroad....cool or not cool??

Staying or working overseas has always been an attraction for me. When I was in my small hometown, coming out of it and staying in a metro was very appealing to me. I would keep imagining the kind of life people lead in a metro and would be weaving dreams of staying in a metro oneday. My wish got fulfilled-- I got married and started staying in Mumbai, a cool metro to be in. Now my dreams have got bigger....I now dream of overseas locations and hope that I can oneday stay there and enjoy the lifestyle there.

But on second thoughts, is it really cool to be staying so far away from your roots? Leaving your hometown and shifting to a metro is fine. You are in your own country and you can anytime go back and meet your loved ones back home. But staying overseas will be different. The people around you won't be yours, you won't be and can never be a part of that country...you will always be considered as an outsider. With the recent attacks on Indians in Australia, it has made me really think again if I really want to shift out of my own country and work for a country who will never own me.

Indeed those places are beautiful and the lifestyle is appealing, but is it worth it? Will it not be better for me to rather stay back in my own country and instead take a yearly holiday and visit beautiful locations abroad. I guess that will be a better bet....What do you say????

do we Eat to live or Live to Eat???

These days me and my husband are constantly having an argument over my eating habits. He feels I am not eating enough due to which I am losing constant weight and some times getting weak. The problem is I am not being able to make him understand that I am having the right food at the right time and in the right quantity. When you do everything right, you ought to have a fit body. Regarding feeling weak at times, the work load has increased so much......starting a business on your own is no child's play! So much to think and plan and to top it all...I have a regular day job as well. Although I work from home, it's nevertheless tiring and staying with family you also have to look after the house.

In the midst of everything, I do take utmost care to eat at the right time and in the right quantity and the right food of course. But issue is he never sees me eating since he is away during the day and at night when my food intake reduces as it should be, he thinks I am not eating!!! Now whose gonna go and explain to this man that I am infact eating more than he does......I am tired of explaining this to him......

Why don't people realize that we Eat to Live...and not Live to Eat!!

I am loving it!!

I never knew it would be so much fun to work for yourself. Finding the small small things that would benefit your business, negotiating deals, thinking of new ways to make things look better and all that it takes to build a strong foundation.......the excitement is amazing and I am loving every bit of it!!! Today I shall be signing the contract with the web development company and I have been thinking since morning and re-reading every aspect of the contract in case I overlooked any. I never even recall reading my own contracts with my employers in the past!!! All in all it is a wonderful experience and you get to learn so much about things you never really cared for.....I hope I can materialize all this experience into a successful business venture!

The first step!

The first step towards my entrepreneurial attempt has been laid. I have registered my domain and website development work has started. Please wish me luck and success in my endeavor. Need all your wishes and support. :)
Will keep you all posted with my progress.....till then wish me luck! :)

Holidaying.....Naturally!

Last weekend was a long one with Friday being a holiday on account of International Labor Day. Me and my husband took a flight to Calicut and from there went on to a village in the Waynad district of Kerala. It was an amazing experience, one that will always be dear to my heart and by far the best holiday I have had in recent times. It brought us close to our Mother Nature and made us realize how lucky we are to have such beauty on earth. Kerala is indeed very rightly called as God's own Country. The lustrous green paddy, the tall coconut trees, the rubber plantations, the coffee shrubs, the banana cultivations....everything was so heavenly beautiful.

We stayed with a local family in "Bamboo Village", a village that is working towards creating a sustainable income for the local people by making bamboo products. In fact, one of the reasons for visiting the place was to procure some of their items for my shop.

The people were so hospitable and so warm in welcoming us that we never felt that we are not a part of them. Although their language is entirely different from ours, they tried and communicated with us in whatever English they knew. It was in fact fun and exciting to communicate. Every time we communicated it was a challenge in itself....... :)

What was interesting to see there was people ate everything homegrown......rice, lentils, vegetables, fruits, and even coffee! Even pain oils and other stuff were being made at home.

The two days that we spent there were fantastic....we breathed fresh air, no stress, no tension, no hurry in getting things done.......what we and others do there is just relax and Live Life in the literal sense of the word.

Below are some of the pictures we took there.....hope they give you a feel of what we had been through in those two days! :)

The house where we had put up. The lady at the door is the hostess and the person working with flowers her husband.

The welcome snack...the white stuff and the jackfruit fries were delicious to have with coffee.

The morning sun.....It was so amazing to see such a view as soon as you open your eyes!

The cow shed....

Brinjals....we had it's curry in the afternoon and it was yummy!

Coffee, banana, vegetables everything at the reach of your hand!

Rubber plantations...we used this way as a short route to reach the main road

Bamboo artisans at work