So after the Christmas Day church service with Surya Kala, as I was away from home, and had the day off, my friend and I set about constructing and decorating a gingerbread house that my family had given me.....ok, a bit of a random activity but it felt very festive (with Home Alone on HBO in the background!).

After I finished my masterpiece, i didnt know what to do with all that gingerbread, icing and candy, so I took it into the NLT leather factory between christmas and new year (as I was managing the AURA QUE production whilst their production manager was away to visit his family in the village of Gorkha). And no, i didn't cycle to the factory that day, with the house balanced on the back, I took a taxi....

 

So all the guys in the factory seemed amused at what i had brought it, and it took me a while to explain during the 11 o'clock tea break, that i wanted them to 'destroy' the house, and eat it.....

Above: Kumar

Above: Man Bahadur

But they soon got the hang of it and as I passed it around, they all grabbed a handful!

Above: Manchu

Above: Bhim and Shyam

My lovely sample making team

From left to right: Man Bahadur, Kumar, Shanti and Manchu.

And the funniest thing was, when i left half the house on the side, and told all the guys in the main room of the factory to come and take what they wanted.....I left the room for 5 minutes, no less, and then it was ALL GONE!! Must have tasted good :)

Happy Christmas x

So with how the production schedule has worked out this year, I am in Nepal for Christmas for the first time.  Its not my favourite time to be here mainly because of the cold weather, which is accentuated by the lack of central heating everywhere, so i am permanently cold!

But I have managed to find some christmas festivities here and there. As well as celebrating with a Christmas Eve Dinner with my expat and Nepali friends, I was invited to Christmas Day Church service with Surya Kala and her family.

I was surprised to find a large congregation of Nepali christians, in the large decorated hall, and thought the sermon fell on deaf ears with me, there were children doing dances and christmas songs in Nepali which was really nice to see! I also loved all the christmas decorations, and every-one was so friendly!

Surya Kala works at the Nepal Leprosy Trust - she has brought up her two teenage daughters Elishiva and Esther on her own, since her husband died of leprosy many years ago, as well as surviving the disease herself.  She is such a kind and cheery woman, despite various health concerns over the last year especially.

Above Left: Esther and Elishiva (Surya Kala's daughters in their sunday best)

Above Right: Surya Kala (third from left) with her friends.

She converted the christian faith many years ago, and has since been very involved in the Nepali Christian community.  At the Christmas Day service, it was the first time she had been back for over a month since a major operation, so it was nice to see how welcomed she was by everyone!

Above: Christmas Dinner still consisted of the daal baht though!!! No change there!!

I hope every one has had a great christmas! It has definately been a different experience to celebrate here!!

So the first week of December saw AURA QUE at the Art Market at the Huddersfield Art Gallery during the weekend Festival of Light. 

It was such a fantastic event, with lots of great events around the town - including the Illuminated Light Garden, Aerial Ballet off the side of the Art Gallery building, and various entertainment and acrobatic shows at night!  It was great to see so many people down and around the town, braving the cold for the events!

We were a bit warmer in the Art Gallery for the weekend event - surrounded by such a great mix of local Yorkshire artists and designers (see pictures below of stands by Julia Ogden, Michelle Freemantle and Clare Lane)

It was such a great Christmas event to be part of, and great to see so many people there! Plus I had my first glass of festive mulled wine to start the season, before I had to fly back to Nepal for the next production and sampling session over Christmas and January.

Last Saturday, AURA QUE was part of the Leeds SUMMAT Gathering 2011 at the Leeds University Union.  The event was an all-age gathering for 1000+ people from all walks of life across Leeds and the north to explore the big issues of our time.  There were workshops about political/environmental/social issues with headline speakers, plus performances, activities and stalls - lots going on!

Here is a youtube clip of the opening event at the Leeds Summat 2011, with Harry Gration from BBC Look North: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mItA8O5N8Fw&feature=youtu.be

AURA QUE had a stall of our fair trade bags and accessories in the market area, but we were also involved in a workshop in the Art Zone.  My sister Elspeth led a workshop making pop-up christmas cards, inspired by the Nepali designs that my paper producer makes in Bhaktapur.

The local kids made pop-up christmas trees decorated with glitter and stars, backed onto the Nepali handmade lokta paper card base.  Here are a sample of some the cards they made!

In Nepal, the producers who make the handmade Lokta paper, use this material for various products. For more information on the making process of this paper, please see the AURA QUE 'process' section of our website or a previous blog post: http://auraque.posterous.com/making-paper-on-the-roof-top-in-bhaktapur

AURA QUE currently uses the Nepalese Lokta paper for stationary, swing tickets, business cards, gift bags and notebooks, where I can.  But they also produce beautiful pop up christmas cards (shown below) which are sold at the Holmfirth Fair Traders Cooperative:

http://www.thefairtraderscooperative.co.uk/