
Continuing the post from last week, we added items from my Indian and Joe's Dutch heritage to Liliana's room.
Originally, I wanted to get little marble elephants like what I have from when I went to the Taj Mahal about 10 years ago. The elephants are made of white marble and inlaid with other color stones similar to how the inlay is done at the Taj Mahal. In India, these little elephants are $20 at most. Unfortunately, being stateside, makes them MUCH more expensive. So I moved on...to at least something functional - a marble jewelry box with inlay. The jewelry box was made by an artisan in India and she sent along a note written in Hindi and English, so I'll keep that for Liliana to read later.
Next up, learning conversational Urdu. I do have some basic Urdu lessons on my iPod that I need to start listening to!
Originally, I wanted to get little marble elephants like what I have from when I went to the Taj Mahal about 10 years ago. The elephants are made of white marble and inlaid with other color stones similar to how the inlay is done at the Taj Mahal. In India, these little elephants are $20 at most. Unfortunately, being stateside, makes them MUCH more expensive. So I moved on...to at least something functional - a marble jewelry box with inlay. The jewelry box was made by an artisan in India and she sent along a note written in Hindi and English, so I'll keep that for Liliana to read later.
Next up, learning conversational Urdu. I do have some basic Urdu lessons on my iPod that I need to start listening to!

For those of you who don't know, Joe is from West Michigan - just outside of Grand Rapids. He does know that part of his family is Dutch, so when we set out to find a Dutch heritage piece - we thought of Delftware (and little kissing dutch figurines), clogs and tulips.
Tulips won as you can see in a little tulip stain-glassed sun-catcher that is now in her window. I'm sure one of these days, we'll get her to the tulip festival in Holland...Michigan (and maybe even to see tulips in the Netherlands!).
There are other things that are obviously important to Joe and me that need to be included as well - namely, baseball (I refuse, however to put anything Yankees in her room) and University of Michigan. Hopefully, within the next week, I'll be able to post pictures of the whole room! We're getting closer and closer :)
Tulips won as you can see in a little tulip stain-glassed sun-catcher that is now in her window. I'm sure one of these days, we'll get her to the tulip festival in Holland...Michigan (and maybe even to see tulips in the Netherlands!).
There are other things that are obviously important to Joe and me that need to be included as well - namely, baseball (I refuse, however to put anything Yankees in her room) and University of Michigan. Hopefully, within the next week, I'll be able to post pictures of the whole room! We're getting closer and closer :)