adventures in grace

Clothing is different where I'm living these days. The culture is more modest, so men usually wear pants and a collared shirt. They get to wear what we like to call "western dress". Or if you're hard at work, you can sport the stylish and usually colorful 'lungi', which is basically a man skirt.

For us women, the transition is more of a stretch. Most married women here wear the beautiful sarees, but I've been told that white women really can't pull that off. For all the single ladies, we just generally have to wear pants and a longer shirt called a kurta. I have a had fun times trying to shop and find things I will actually like. All the kurtas generally have some element of bling. Sequins, rhinestone --anything goes if it adds a little 'pop' to the outfit. Many times I have liked a shirt except for a few key elements. Like the other day, I saw a cute shirt, but as I pulled it out to look at it, these orange aluminum foil-looking sun's are stuck on the front. Nice. It's like, designers make a cute shirt and then just go crazy with all these extras. Needless to say, my wardrobe is pretty small right now.

But I feel like I had a mini-success the other day. I found a shirt I liked except for these rows of red sequins. I thought, "I'll buy it, and cut them off!" And that is just what I did. It took me a good while, but now I have a shirt I like! Anyway, I took a few pictures-- just thought I'd share a little bit from my life in South Asia. It's the little things that count. :)

Here is the first pic. At the neck, there were 3 rows of sequins.

If you look closely, you can see where the stitching is left. :)