It’s Spring Time!

“Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush.” ~Doug Larson

Spring is being a real tease by giving us slight glimpses of it once in a while. The long days, warm glow from the sun, and the chirping of the birds are all hinting that it’s just round the corner somewhere. I simply can’t wait to see the bare trees turn green, frozen lakes come back to life again, the flowers to bloom and for the nature to unveil its myriad colors.

Spring is such a delight that it’s completely worth the wait.

Meanwhile, I’ve been trying to add some spring flair to my home by playing around with different settings and introducing color to perk up the mood. Without spending anything at all, I compiled together a few things lying around in the house to create a look. Here are a few of them :-

1. On my recent trip to India, I went to my grandmother’s place and she gave me this cotton sheet which had been with me during my college days. It’s a beautiful handmade block-printed sheet in a lovely blueish green color, which I had completely forgotten about. I decided to bring it back with me to the US.
2. Two beautiful hand painted gold-rimmed mugs which were a flea market find for an amazing bargain price.
3. This wooden plank which we recently got from Ikea to make extra storage space in the closet, but haven’t had the time to install it yet.
4. Coffee mug turned planter in deep blue color which got chipped while moving from California.
5. Wooden serving tray from TJ MAXX.
6. Ceramic birds Salt pepper shakers, gifted to me by a friend.

Makes for a cute informal setting if you have guests over for tea.

This weather reminds me of the spring flower festival I attended last year around the same time. Here are some pictures from the same.

DIY art for your home

This is an ode to all the art classes I took in my architecture school but never put them to use. I’ve been so excited with these brick walls ever since we moved in, and wanted to create something on my own and hopefully shock my husband, either way..:P. Now that I have my first attempt out of the way, hopefully this will be the start of a series of challenging paintings. Here are a couple of them and I’ll keep adding more as I go along. The colors I’ve used here are royal blue and matt gold.

 

Living Room – Sneak Peeks

Ok, as I promised, here is a sneak peek into our living room. Since the work is in progress, I’ll update with an overall picture pretty soon. The idea behind this look was to have an uncluttered, clean and chic look. I wanted to have a neutral palate with subtle accents of gold.

If you live in an apartment, you have to add things carefully so that you don’t end up with unnecessary pieces of furniture. The clever way is to find things which are versatile. In our case, we had to have a bookshelf to accommodate 100’s of books which my husband owns, and I wanted a nice statement console where I could line my frames and artwork. The result is what you see in the picture. I also tried to color coordinate the books…(this is what happens when a designer marries a book freak..:P) The addition of lamps gave a nice face-lift to this simple ikea bookshelf.

1. Ikea EXPEDIT shelving unit in Brown-Black ($70)
   
2. Target Lamp-shade in White Linen ($17)
3. Threshold Lamp-base in clear glass from Target ($30)
4. I got my table runner from Tjmaxx for $8 which is no longer in stock, but I like this one too from Target.
5. Ikea Ribba picture frames ($5-$10);various sizes 

Melbourne Home

Fell in love with this beautiful home of Melbourne based illustrator, Letitia Green. I love houses with character. Each corner of this house reflects and breathes the personality of its owner. 

 

Modular Bookshelf

MODULAR BOOKSHELF

MODULAR BOOKSHELF

MODULAR BOOKSHELF

MODULAR BOOKSHELF

MODULAR BOOKSHELF

MODULAR BOOKSHELF

 

Am in LOVE with this versatile bookshelf and dying to get hold of it. My husband being an avid reader, we have a HUGE collection of books at home, most of them just stacked up in the living room and crying for a better place. I don’t like heavy bookshelves at all, a bookshelf like this would make an interesting addition to a living room decor, specially against an exposed brick wall.

Source

American Wedding

Having grown up in India, I’ve always been fascinated by the weddings of the west. Never in my farthest dreams had I imagined that I’ll get to attend one myself, so you can guess how excited I was to finally go to one..:)

The wedding was at the magnificent Ramekins Culinary School in Sonoma wine country and I was absolutely smitten by the elegant and beautiful flower arrangement, needless to say that I have a weakness for ‘All things Pretty’. The decor and the set up blew me away. Everything was so prefect and fairytale-ish for me.

It was a cross-cultural wedding between a Jamaican bride and a German groom with a unique mix of traditions. And I must say, I’ve never seen such a fun bride before. Here’s hoping for many more weddings like this in the future.