7 years and counting!

Hello My friends,

Wow it has been a long time since i have posted anything on my blog. This is ridiculous i made a promise to myself that i was going to post at least one post a week. The last time i was in Hawaii. Oh yes on a fabulous vacation. I have been back for a month now and trying to get back to my far from Normal life.

Well I wanted to address a couple of things here today. I have been getting quite a few calls from friends and clients of mine from the butik. Okay now i know you guys have not been seeing me at the store. I truly do miss all of you as i feel it has been so long. Okay so here it is...i have decided to take a much needed break! YEA!For those who follow me and know my history you will know that i have been in the retail business for 7+ long years. I started in a shop that was 400 sqft on Historic Auburn ave in 2004. I quit my crazy corporate job to be an entrepener. I had great success and my little company started have growing pains....I needed to get a bigger store in more of a high traffic area. If anyone in atlanta knows LIL 5 points is where you need to go. Well i also learnt the hard way that it is seal tight there. You either need to know someone who knows someone or you need to be pluged in.

So on one of my many visits to the area i ran into a friend who told me that the bazaar was actually looking for new businesses to rent Booths. That is all I needed to know. Fast Forward, a month later I got the front 2 booths broke them down built a fitting room and Baam Bombay Gal in lil 5 points. Some may say i downsized but in actuality i downsized only in space...yea! I went from a 400 sqft store for $520 a month to a 10 X10 Booth for get this $1100 a month. Yes pretty ridiculous, but this was a part of my master plan. The foot traffic was incredible, I grew my customer base from 700 to 2500 in about 6 months...yes my little booth. I am featured in Dailycandy, many blogs, uptown mag, Vibe, and oh so many photoshoots! The jewelry has always been the main seller but the clothes got mad love too. My moto has always been less is more....cheaper prices and move quantity. I got my clothes from India, nyc, LA etc. But i got my personality from my MAMA! lol! That helped too!

Soon I started to get growing pains again...but this time i just had to put it out in the universe and it came to me. Yes 900 sqft, affordable rent, In the Virginia highlands area. What could be better. I moved in and with my awesome BFF and hubby we opened BG in the Highlands Last year. The process has been hard, lonely at times, busy and oh so tiring. But the reward has been incredible. I have been my PR person, my buyer, my own designer, my graphic person, my web developer, my merchandiser for 7 years you guys! Yes i need a break.

I have been blessed to have met some incredible people along the way and one in particular is Ihsaana Gay....she met me in lil 5 points when the store was in the bazaar and has followed me ever since. Se has agreed to partner up with me and take care of the store in my absense! she is wonderful and just as friendly, sweet and crazy as i am. Please show her some love!

I also Partnered up with a good friend of mine Christine Miller to open a 2nd location for me....A Vintage store on Flat Shoals rd...called Eclectic Gal...Yes its ours, its vintage and that's where i have been hanging out lately!

Now I have not been hiding or anything....I have been giving all my energy into launching an exclusive Bombay Gal Designs jewelry line. I have been experimenting with fabrics, vintage metals, paint, chains, metalwork etc.

Now you may not see me at the store that much ....but you will definately see the line at BG of course, and we picked up a few more stores we are also available at NV-U Boutique on BLVD, Cat's Natural Beauty Salon, Little Black dress in St Louis and of course Bombay Gal and Eclectic Gal. And you best believe we will be coming to your city soon...a festival near you....or a friends home party!

So there it is....All in a nut shell....Now what have you been upto? lets catch up!

In the footsteps of Anthony Bourdain.......Hawaiin style

My first night in Hawaii and we did it up...The crew and I which consists of our good friend Gavin Dougan (who has travelled with Devaughn and me for years now) his companion Kate,and our friend Babu. We decide to hit up an awesome cafe that has the stamp of approval of ANTHONY BOURDAIN himself. Besides we have our own Foodie Gavin that we don't really need Anthony but we definitely were excited to know. So we head to the famous Side Street Inn--the entrance of the restaurant fits the name accurately. It is a dark side street, no frill building with all of the exhaust fans covering the front of the entrance. There were two sections a bar and adult section where you smoke and drink, and the family section....where we were sat cause we were a big party.

Started the night with some very tasty Mai tai's......

Gavin did all the ordering for us and here are some of the most amazing meat lovers dishes made with love at the Side Street Inn.....We gave it 5 stars.....i"ll let the pictures do the talking.

Enjoy!!!!!

The journey Begins....

Hiya people,

Well here i am in Seattle Airport heading to Honolulu HI........Its a crazy story i tell you. This week started out filled with anxiety, tears and happiness. I cant completely tell you guys whats up...so i will just fill in some of the blanks with out giving away too much. Why! you ask cause you know how i am always up to something...well soon come. But you guys already know that i am on a mission to start a wholesale line. I am working on getting my work into a bunch of boutiques all around the US.

At the Seattle airport, waiting for my connecting flight

But before that here is what happened...... Devaughn calls me from LA telling me that he is going to Hawaii for a job....all i heard was BLAH BLAH BLAH! He continues, but that he didn't want to take it because i was alone (the kids have abandoned me) and that i was going thru a lil something. He continues....Gavin (our mutual friend and Director extradinore)suggests...why dont we have Shahnaz join us here in honolulu..........WHAAAT!!! SAY THAT AGAIN! "yes babe...look for a flight and meet me in Hawaii on Sunday"----Now i know how groupies feel!!!! And so here i am on my way to the big Island.

This is a very special trip for me for a couple of reasons.....one of the main reasons is that my husband use to be stationed in Hawaii 17 years ago. He has shared many memories with me about HI. And the best thing to have had happen to him there was that he had his first baby girl born there. My Gorgeous step baby Chynne. So this will complete the cycle for me and actually add my own memories with him in HI. Also, i am going to take this week to get inspired and focused on my jewelry making journey. I am going to take the time to relax, breath and let of go of alot of things and look forward to my journey ahead.......

hope you follow my journey!

New Jewelry.....~Fabric Love~

I'm Home........

Being an artist is definately not easy, but very rewarding when that creating energy hits you. I have been designing jewelry for about 4 years now. And I have my share of being creatively blocked. To get out of this rut there are a few things i do to start my creative flow.

1) I start looking at other creative blogs.

2) I go through all the fashion magazines you can imagine....(i think i have an addiction to magazines).

3) I look at all the past pieces i have made. Sometimes I cant even believe that i created these.

4) And lastly.....I look around my house for inspiration. All my life I have been told surround yourself with beautiful, inspiring and exotic things. Growing up in Bombay, India we always had vibrant colors, open spaces, inviting pieces and beauty all around. So this has never escaped me.

So today I am welcoming you in my space...our space...here are a few pictures that inspire me, pieces i love, this is what i call "HOME

My Hubby and I bought these amazing Hamsa brass door knobs on a trip to Nepal, I love just looking at them around the house.

Yes! it has been a miniute

Finally! I am making some time to blog today. It has been an hectic few weeks since the Inman Park festival. And i have to say....drumroll please......It was truly an amazing show. I dont think there was a time during that whole 2 days that we had less than 3 people shopping at the Booth. I do have to say it started off bad. I broke a panel of earrings that had 35 pairs hanging from it. I was almost in tears. I spent countless nights away from family movies and dinners to sweat over all the jewelry for this festival. Then my credit card machine stopped working. My spirit was slowly but surely shutting down.

I called Devaughn (hubby)and broke down.....but all his sweet words of encouragement made me wipe my tears.....put on my big girl panties ....get myself together, put a big smile on my face ......and VOILA! ching ching!!!!! One sale after the others. One thing i have learned from being in business for myself for so many years is that you get what you put in. If you wear your stress on your face everyone will feel it and keep away. Fake it if you have to but don't bring your personal woes to work.

I loved doing the Inman Park festival. It is so community oriented. People value and support local artist. My jewelry did well, the sari wraps sold out.....And i made so many new friends and customers. I was so very excited! We will be definately be there next year bigger and better. Thank you for the awesome opportunity.

Believe it or not i did not even have time to take pics!!! But here are some pics of the jewelry!

Its about time........

Bombay Gal makes its debut at the Inman Park Festival......
April 30th sat-May 1st
Inman Park