Barcelona, May 2016

Ola amigos!

Husband and I have just returned ( roasted and baked) from our trip to Barcelona and Madrid. We were joined by friends in Barcelona who left for France after and we made our way to Madrid. I am grateful to be travelling so much around Europe. I am grateful too for sunny skies, perfect weather, good food and for friends who made this trip so much better!

Here are some photographs of my trip to Barcelona, minus Gaudi for that will make for another post!

Sunny skies and a gorgeous beaches, whats not to like? As our taxi driver famously said....this is where the beach starts and goes all the way up to France! I should have asked for his name.

 

Where there aren't tourists, there are old people sitting outside, on the benches, soaking up the sun!

Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau 

 Barri Gotic, or the Gothic Quarters, center of the Old City of Barcelona, and my favourite part of the trip! Many buildings here date from the Medieval Times and are breathtaking! Many of course may be much later additions to the city, made to look old, but then this is what makes history more interesting!

Catedral De Barcelona, when you go spend sometime sitting outside, on the steps listening to music, played by many talented street musicians.

There were beautiful street performances at every corner! This man was playing El Condor Pasa by Simon and Garfunkel, it is the song I play to reset my systems, every now and again.

The gothic curches were as beautiful from inside as they were from the outside. So tall. They were all functional and we managed to catch a church choir in progress too!

So many building facades were beautiful and so varied, with etchings and relief work and mosaics and colours. We need to bring this kind of craftsmanship back, the shiny glass and steel buildings will not make for very happy blog posts, and will certainly not tell you which city I am talking about!

The city was densely populated with one building after another and tiny Juliet Balconies. There we very few individual houses. Barcelona did have many plazas and all the cafes were pouring out to the streets and open squares.

The nighlife is buzzing in Barcelona with many night clubs by the beach overflowing with Sangrias, Mojitos and Tapas. Food was generally good everywhere, however I have had better tapas in London and no other city beats the London food scene in my humble opinion.

Find some of Gaudi's work in my next post! See you later. Oh and we went for a day trip to Sitges, beautiful!

Love,
Kanika

Psst...no, Zara and Mango are not around the corner, at every corner, this mind is a funny little thing :)

Doors and Windows of Marrakech, Chefchauen & Fez

Some of you already know that husband and I were lucky to travel to Morocco in 2015. As a matter of fact, all of last year was full of travel for us and I hope to sort out my pictures and share them with you here, on my often neglected Blog! Of course this may be a result of the dawn of a new year and all its action packed positivity rubbing off on me, we shall see :)

Within Morocco we traveled to Marrakech, Chefchauen and Fez, with Chefchauen being a hill station and strikingly different to the other two. Since I have hundreds of photographs of my trip, I have decided to organize them into several blog posts, each dealing with a different aspect, Architecture, textiles, bazaars and so on.

Above is the entrance of our beautiful Riad Lheure-dete in Marrakech, you can check out the hotel website here: http://www.lheure-dete.com/chambres.html
It was comfortable and affordable with warm and friendly service.

Riads are typically small residential Haveli Style properties with a central courtyard with a garden/citrus trees and rooms all around. Many of these Riads have been converted into boutique hotels offering great service, in the heart of the old city areas of these popular destinations.
I highly recommend living in one of these to get a taste of Morocco.

Below is a small collection of Doors and windows of Morocco...

http://jardinmajorelle.com/ang/

Lots more pictures coming soon so stay tuned!

Anek Designs@ Asia House Fair, London!

You are all cordially invited to the annual Asia House Fair in London! 

I am delighted to be a part of this fantastic event this year and hope to see some of you my lovely readers on the opening day!

You may check out the amazing lineup of designers and ethical traders here and here

Find out more about the event here.

I will also launch some new lines at the show and promise to report from the event. Here is a sneak peak of my new Madhubani collection:

Do spread the word!

www.anekdesigns.com

New blogs & websites on the block!

The world of social media is buzzing and some of our friends too have their own new Blogs and Companies! I am here to introduce you to some of them today.

Image : peacocksintherain.com

Peacocks In The Rain is a new blog by my dear dear friend Ila who is a self confessed textile hoarder and is in love with the Indian Crafts. She is now curating for various online retailers and shops such as FabFurnish etc. Head to Ila's blog for Indian Craft Inspiration and a selection of carefully selected products, brands and events!

 Images: peacocksintherain.com (image credits are given on the blog)

Ila invites select bloggers to write guest posts on her blog and I recently wrote one on the Ikat Craft of India. I thoroughly enjoyed reading up and researching for this post and must thank Ila for giving me this opportunity to pause and reflect on a craft and read up on its origin.

Image: peacockintherain.com

As the poster above suggests and as predicted as one of the future trends, Len Den or barter is going to play a huge role in the future economies. So if you would like to be featured on Ila's blog or would like to write a guest post, contact her here: 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Peacocksinttherain-886461431428441/timeline

Email: editors@peacocksintherain.com

While on the topic of Len Den or Barter, we recently bartered our beautiful products for a small ad feature on this fantastic new Bangalore based event listing platform called Events High!

If you don't know about Events High yet then head straight to their website now for your dose of local events in Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai.

Check it out and you won't be disappointed, I promise! They list everything from concerts to food, origami & craft workshops, activities for kids and much much more. 

So if you still haven' planned your Christmas and New Years' eve then this is where you can start:  https://www.eventshigh.com/city/bangalore , they have a cool new app to download too!

My Online Store is here!!

It is here and I look forward to your orders! www.anekdesigns.com is where you will find lots of Cushion Covers, Table Linen and Accessories, go now, check it out and do let me know what you think of it!
The international customers will still be directed to the Etsy Shop till we are ready to integrate and have a common platform for both. However if it is an Indian Address you wish to ship to, then go ahead and make your purchase now!

I wonder what took me so long to launch an online store for my lovely Indian Customers! Well now we are here and I can't wait to start wrapping your orders, hurry first 5 orders may receive a surprise gift!

Woohoo! I am so excited, join our Newsletter (at the bottom of the website) and stay on top of our latest events, launches and news! See ya!