My Month In Instagrams! January 2015

I went back to Instagram after a 2 month break this January. Here’s a round up of the highlights from the first month of 2015 you can enjoy while I go stand in line to vote. Delhi peeps, you’re voting – right?

—

Kickstarted the year on a happy note – with a mention in Times of India’s supplement! I do wish they had mentioned the blog name, though. Most people must’ve wondered – who the hell is Shinjini Chawla? Ah, well. Was happy to add one more to my Press love page!

—

I did make a few, teeny tiny resolutions this year (but I didn’t exactly call them that because we all know nobody keeps their resolutions). One of them was putting my office together, finally, and we made some more headway. Those floral fabric covered boxes on top are from Gifts of Love, a store in Saket that you can also order from online (although their stuff costs more online than in-store). The “Dream” piece is from London and that tiny flower pot is from Pepperfry.com (cute, but not worth the price!)

—

The closer we got to the end of the month, the more wedding invites made their way to our homes. This was one of the many unique and elegant cards I have seen over the last few months. There’s no dearth of wonderful wedding invite designs and designers now, brides. Rejoice at all your choices!

—

While the cards rolled in, I rolled up my sleeves and got ready to tackle the second half of this wedding season. I was so bored of my all-open hairstyle, and having grown out my bangs, I was desperate to learn something new. I loved the messy side bun Sumit did for me on my best friend’s wedding, but I would have to shell out INR 1800 and make a trip all the way to GK2 to make that happen. So armed with nothing but a couple of U-pins (with which I had ZERO experience) and this super easy YouTube tutorial (see below!), I tried out a DIY messy side bun for the very first time and this is the result. The tutorial is actually for a braided side bun, but mine didn’t come out as neat and therefore I decided it was my version of a messy side bun 😉

If you want a real messy side bun tutorial, I found one for you. This is for those of you who are either already blessed with curly hair, or have the patience to curl all your hair before trying this out. It’s also great if you want more volume.

—

I visited Bhubaneswar (for the very first time!) on the Republic Day long weekend to attend an Oriya-Tamil wedding. Where I…

…enjoyed the flight with a long, uninterrupted session of reading #GirlBoss on my new Kindle! Best. gift. ever, if you’re wondering what to gift to a bookworm you know.

…tried the messy side bun (of course!) since I had a LOT of time to get ready for the Sangeet as I was sans husband. Ended up bumping into a couple of blog readers here! ❤ ❤ ❤ They all were super nice and I ended up having a great time thanks to them!

…broke my sandals during said Sangeet, and promptly decided to leave them behind in my hotel room. Bye-bye, you wonderful pair of flats that went with everything I wore *sob sob*

…attended my very first morning wedding, on a beach-side! It was so pretty, and so hot, and I forgot my sunglasses in Delhi. Hello, headache! Thankfully, they had these wonderful orange juice and coconut water counters. I drank way more than I ate that day.

…spotted the cutest and ideal centrepiece for a beach wedding – an empty coconut shell used as a vase with beautiful flowers in it!

—

Ended the month on a sweet-scented note. I splurged a little bit on these Niana candles in Vanilla. My office smells heavenly…*sigh* Can’t wait to get back to work on Monday!

—

If you want to keep up with what goes on behind the blog, off the blog and on the blog – follow me on Instagram.

PS. Look out for #ShinZaFit on Instagram soon…

PPS. We have a giveaway with The Wedding Filmer that ends today at 2 pm IST. Don’t forget to enter!