COTTON STREET

Good Morning to you,

Do you love material?

Do you love scouring shops for that perfect piece of material?

You do.....well I have a treat for you today.

My favourite place, in the whole wide world for material....now that is quite a statement, is Cotton Street in Chennai....and I was taken there by Natasha for my Mother's Day treat.... I was in heaven....let me show you why.

There are so many fabulous material stalls, standing shoulder to shoulder along Cotton Street. They set up at about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, when the sun has past, as this allows the stall holders to sit in the shade. It also makes it a much more comfortable experience whilst browsing, although we did carry umbrellas to protect ourselves from the sun.....just in case.

Can you feel my excitement.

  

I could not begin to count how many stalls there were.  The stall holders in this photograph had finished laying out their materials and were just waiting for their customers to arrive......us!



As you can see, there is nothing fancy about these stalls, but what they are, is jam-packed with different sorts of materials.  There are silks and cottons. There are beautiful upholstery materials. There are patterned materials and plain materials. You could buy material by the bolt or by the yard.....the stall holders preferred you to buy by the bolt, but I had to think about the weight of my suitcase when flying home.

I think I shall let you into a little secret.  Natasha has a large box which she has labelled "Mum's Box", so that anything which I cannot pack into my suitcase is left in this box, either for Natasha to bring to England or for me to collect when we return.  I think if I remember correctly, I left a lot of clothes and fitted in the material....well you would do the same wouldn't you???

......and no there is not a "Dad's Box", as he shares my box, except he never puts anything in it! I think I shall leave it at that!

The one thing we had to learn how to do, was to haggle.

As we were walking along the street, a lady who had been at a previous stall buying material, walked up to us and whispered, yes whispered, that whatever the stall holder quoted as a price, you halved the price and added 20 per cent.  It was very kind of her to help us and this was a useful piece of advice, but I have to say we were both more than happy with the prices on offer.

Here is Natasha buying material. She is holding on to her own handbag, as well as mine, I was supposed to be browsing at another stall, as Natasha had taken my handbag, to allow me to look more freely, but I crept up behind her and took this photograph.

Are you counting the carrier bags in the photograph?

You are aren't you. 

You will never guess how much material we bought, as the bags were filled with different types of material and they were also lined up in front of Natasha..... I know.....exciting!

Would you like to see a couple of pieces of material which I bought?

Well, this material did have my name on it.....didn't it.

......and this piece was just calling out to me. You know my love affair with hearts.

The plan had been to stroll down Cotton Street, to look at each of the stalls and then to decide what we would buy.  We were very good, we passed Stall number one, mmm, yes very nice, then onto Stall number two.....yes extremely nice, by the time we had reached Stall number three.....well we were bursting at the seams to buy some material.... no I have to be truthful....I WAS BURSTING AT THE SEAMS TO BUY SOME MATERIAL.  I know, I know, I should have stuck to the plan, but honestly I couldn't, the excitement was just welling up inside of me.

I was like a child in a sweet shop. 

Do you know, this was only about the 8th stall, there were so many more further along the road, but we were so happy with the material that we had bought, we decided not to go any further.

We could not wait to take the materials from the carrier bags to "show and tell". 

We did not even stop for a coffee, we drove straight home. Trust me, we were so excited about our purchases, we discussed each piece of material in the back of the car on our way home.

When we arrived home, we showed George and do you know he just rolled his eyes and said "Oh no, not more material!"

I just don't know what he means!

This week I shall be joining,

Kathryn at The Dedicated House

and

Natasha for Say G'Day

(I think I should mention, this is not my daughter, Natasha)

Take care and I will see you later in the week.