Happy Friday Folks!!

I recently heard of Anokhi, a museum dedicated to reviving and preserving the art of block printing. I'm not sure whether it's already done the desi(gn) blog circuit(apologies if you already heard of/blogged about it earlier!!), but just in case it hasn't, here's a  quick video to get you acquainted with the MO......






Here's a link to the museum website. Do hop on over for more info!


That's it for the week folks, have a great weekend!!


Linked via.

Drumroll please.........

The winner of the CSN giveaway is...

Comment#39, which belongs to Shilpa Kamath. Shilpa, please get in touch with me ASAP and I'll put you in touch with the CSN associate. Congrats!!!

Take a breather, won't you?

My sweets, how goes your week? Mine has been super busy as I've been running around tying up loose ends...I'm exhausted and would like nothing better than to sink into a nice cozy corner.....

I wouldn't mind lifting that lamp off the floor and settling in with a good book. Add to the picture:  warm socks, a cuddly throw, an ottoman to prop those tired feet up, adrak chai and a good book. I'm currently reading this (or trying to, LOL!!--progress is S-L-O-W). What about you? 

Image courtesy: The Assembly Hall

Somewhere.....

Via.

Happy(sappy!!) Monday, my loves!! Does this song bring on the goosebumps for you as well? What about this one????

Have a good one......

xo,
G

Blog swapping with Patricia of Colours Dekor

Hello my loves, I'm swapping blogs with Patty of Colours Dekor today. Won't you hop on over to Patty's blog to check out my post?  But first a little bit about the ever-charming Patricia. Take it away girl.....

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Hello to all my lovely readers ~ of Peacocks & Paisleys. I’m Patricia Torres and I passionately blog at Colours Dekor. I just simply love weekends and hence thought ‘The Friday Mix’ which is a blog swap… is the best way to kick start my weekend.. Yes.. my weekends are Friday & Saturday… !! Would you like to blog swap with Colours Dekor?? Email me on torresp27@hotmail.com. Let me know, Id love to hear from you






Now a little about me ~ I’m a design enthusiast… I love to make my surroundings beautiful.. I wake up every morning with a zest to keep my home clutter free, organised and beautiful. My day job is in the finance industry and hence my evenings are dominated by home chores ~ which mainly consist of cleaning, clearing and sorting apart from the norm.


I started Colours Dekor as a journal to capture the pretty moments in my home… to cherish the DIYs or paint jobs. I love changing the décor and adding a little extra this and that, here and there… which just meant my home never looks the same.. Hence the easiest way to capture my hard work… was blog about it.






Weekends are very special to me.. so that’s when my home looks extra gorgeous… I arrange, rearrange and assemble curios & knick knacks around the house to give it a fresh & innovative look!! Weekends start with candles, even if there are no guests. It’s always nice when people appreciate your work, but there’s a different kind of euphoria to looking around at what you’ve done and feeling a happy feeling on the inside – so I like making my home look special – even if it’s just for me.. *smiles*





Most projects are planned and executed over the weekends as well.. I love to see ‘walls with character’… I’m not a white wall person.. atleast one wall in my home needs to be painted with a burst of colours.. or a few photographs; perhaps some candle arrangements as well – I believe a wall, or for that matter a home- just like a photograph, can speak a 1000 words. I’ve done a few wall projects and they’ve all turned out lovely – you can check them out at my blog as well – they have been labours of love! This is one of my more recent projects - a picture of my girls room. One weekend we revamped their room, by making ballerinas on one wall and butterflies on the other… All in all, a gorgeous looking room!!






Like I said earlier… Weekends are extra special to me.. Do come and join the linky party at Colours Dekor ~ The Weekend Wrap Up.. and tell us all about your weekend!! Hope to see you at Colours Dekor and don’t forget to say ‘hello’ - I love hearing from all you lovely people *smiles* Thank you Gagan for blog swapping with me today… *hugs*


-Patricia
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Thanks for the wonderful blog swap idea Patty! I had a blast. :)

xo,
G

Giveaway time!!!

The first (hopefully of many more!!) in 2011. CSN stores has very generously offered to give away a $45 gift card, which can be used anywhere on their site, in any of their 200+ stores!!! What can you use the loot toward??--totally up to you; why, with spring approaching, you could even use it to purchase one of their swingsets for junior!

Here are some goodies that I found very tempting......

I wonder what you'll find?  Let me know.....

Here are the rules for the giveaway:

Four entries per person (extra entries will be culled). Leave a new comment for each entry. Giveaway open to U.S./Canadian residents. Residents of other continents---You may still enter for a loved one in the U.S./Canada. The winner will be announced on the 27th of January!

Entry#1: Leave a comment with a link to your pick from the CSN website.

Entry#2: Follow P&P and leave a comment. If you're already a follower, just leave a comment so it can be counted.

Entry#3: Spread the word---Blog about it and leave the link in an additional comment.

Entry#4: Facebook/tweet about the giveaway and leave a comment.

Thanks for playing along, best of luck--I wish I could host a giveaway for each of you lovely folks, but this is the best I can do for now. Thank you for visiting-- you make my day! :D Now go on, go ahead and enter--this giveaway is only open a week!!!

Pop quiz.......

What do you SEE here?? the locale, the clothes, the makeup or the jewelry? Or the whole package?

 

 

Not a big fan of the MC Hammer pants, LOL!!!

 My eyes went straight to the locale, then to the whole look/feel of the photograph. What did you take in???

Methinks I'd like to visit. Beam me up, Scotty.

All pictures: Swedish Elle, found via. First spotted on Compai.
PS: There's a new giveaway happening tomorrow. See you there here?

Henna...

...on furniture??? Wow, I've heard of doodling, but this takes it to a whole new level...(actually it's laser etched, not doodled)...came across these gorgeous end tables and I thought I'd share it with you....

 via.

 "Tattoo"  end table by designer Debbie Palao. I love how creative this is. What do you think? 

Available here.

Bestowed!!

And graciously accepted...the Stylish blogger award!! Three stylish ladies appear to think so, so I'm accepting before they change their minds LOL! So in order to (graciously) accept the award I need to disclose seven things about myself and pass it forward to seven stylish bloggers. First up, I need to thank Satrupa@ Food for Thought, Evie@Post-College Working Girl and Sundeep@Designwali for the sweet mention+awards! Thank you, my sweets---I shall try to live up to the honor! :D

  
I have been tagged/awarded earlier and tho' I was very wary of it initially I'm finally getting round to accepting it as an occupational hazard a part of blogging. Since I wasn't very amenable to the award the first time around, I have decided to mend my ways and become a reformed woman(new year , new beginnings.....yada yada yada). You see before you a woman resolute in her determination to not only not buck the rule (read that three times, fast!) but to sweetly rise to the occasion *cue some sweet harp-type music*....yes, the halo is definitely in place.

But I still need to cough up seven things you might not know about me.................

1. I make a trip to the library every Tuesday/Wednesday. My bag is as heavy going in as it is coming out (I do the library round for the entire family). Libraries are a blessing, tax dollars really well spent and I wish people would use them more. I had an independent membership to the British council library in Delhi from the day I entered college to the day I left Delhi. It used to take me an hour and a half to get there (Delhi traffic was abysmal back in those days!!!--please note: I'm hoping things have improved).

2. While in hostel, the thing I used to crave most was simple home made khichdi. I haven't had it in almost eight years now. I'm hoping I will get to taste some soon. While on the subject of strange food cravings I used to crave meetha bun with amul butter when I first moved to Canada. I try not to think of butter anymore (and, to be honest, don't really miss it all that much).

3. One of Delhi's best kept secrets is the crafts museum on Bhairon marg, on the Pragati Maidan grounds (at least it was the best kept secret till a certain very chic lady decided to shop there!) I wonder how the experience has changed over the years that I've been away. This was the destination for craft lovers before dilli haat usurped the title (I find dilli haat  a little too "staged" for my liking, but I'll still shop there(!!!)

4. I sit with a box of kleenex for most books and movies that aren't classified as  comedies or thrillers. I cried straight through "The Kite Runner" (and I finished it). I'll probably read it again some time in the future. If I tell you I loved a book, I probably cried while reading it. (Such a sap!) :D While on the subject, I hate horror movies--they don't spook me, I just get irritated.


5. I can eat alone, always could..........most afternoons I just gobble down my lunch, get it out of the way so I can use my time elsewhere.

6. I love sitcoms--hubby and I can watch back to back Seinfeld/Friends/Raymond reruns. Current favorites "The middle", "modern family", "Big bang theory" and "how I met your mother"..... we're also a little addicted to american pickers. TV is a social activity for me. I can't watch it alone.

7. Both hubby and I are also addicted to the comedy central presents series.

There. That wasn't so hard!!!!


Now I need to spread the love......If you haven't discovered these lovely blogs yet, you must check them out!
1. Betsy@ Making Pretty.
2. Geeta@ Occasionally Chic.
3. LBB@ little brown bride.
4. Bruce @Bruce Barone.
5.Anu@Fleeting Glimpse.
6. Neha@All Things Beautiful.
7. Anu @My dream canvas

That's it, signing off,

yours etc.................
-G

Can* I do it?--a DIY story.

Of all things that touch our lives, it's funny what the heart remembers and wants to hold on to. When I was in college, I had a lovely Madhubani paper-mâché pencil holder---it was bright and vibrant and it made me very happy. My dorm room had a nice heavy desk with drawers and I had covered the working surface with heavy blue paper (yes, I really loved the color back then!). Anyhoo, sometime last month, I started obsessing  over my pencil holder--if I could just have it, my table would be perfect (do I have deeper issues here--we'll leave those for the analyst! :D). But it's near impossible (okay, prohibitively expensive!) to find a replica of my beloved  pencil holder out here in the boonies. So the only solution was to make one. You saw a sneak peek of the project here. Here's the end result:

Okay, that's not too Madhubani-y, but I just love the colors!! It has all my favorite motifs--Paisleys, peacocks, flowers, totas (Indian parrots).........It's colorful and it makes me happy. So here's the deets on how I did it--materials/supplies and tips. I can't do a tutorial, because my hands were involved in crafting and I couldn't hold the camera and do that at the same time. Maybe it's time to get a mini tripod+update my photography skills. A lot to do, so little time.......... :)

Okay. Materials/supplies....
1. Empty soup can. (I used Campbells chunky. LOL!!!)
2. One pack creative paperclay. From Michaels. I didn't use all for this project....in fact I may have used only about a quarter for this project(where did the rest go?--I'll share that in a bit!). I liked many things about this medium--it was very malleable, which is a big plus! it wasn't overly messy--I've done paper-mâché from scratch (newspaper soaked in a bucket--loads of work!) and this was easy to work with. It also airdries, so that was good. Only thing was that once it dries, it tends to crack along fault lines/areas where you overlap two strips. I repaired the cracks with a thinned out slurry that I applied and later smoothed out with water.

The how-tos of it all:
1. Take a lump of clay. Roll it out to quarter inch thickness--try to get it as oblong as possible, since it needs to cover the tin. Drape the flattened roti (for want of a better word, LOL!) over the tin. It's surprisingly pliable! roll out another oblong and drape it over areas that were left bare in the first attempt. Press it over the tin lightly--it should stick! now trim off the extra bits--make sure you fold some over the open edge. Roll the tin over a smooth surface (like you would a rolling pin) to smooth out the surface. Set to dry.
2. Fill in any cracks that may have appeared.
3. Sketch the design with a pencil.
4. Paint!
5. I totally cheated on the black lines---by the time I was done painting, I didn't have the patience to fill in the outlines with a zero number brush. So I grabbed a sharpie and defined all outlines with it. Who will know? (Just me and the entire interwebs, LOL!).

Some more thoughts: once dry, it's just like paper (handmade paper) and I found that I could use a regular eraser to correct any mistakes---though I tend to press my pencil in quite hard, and I did leave an impression behind....it lends to the handmade charm IMO! Once I used the sharpie, I had a D-OH moment. I could just as easily have filled in the colors with my kid's markers (but I like the effect of brushstrokes, so I'm happy with how it turned out). I think that this project would be an easy one to try at home with paper strips, soaked in a 1:1 mix of water and glue.

If you want to try it, go for it!!! Ain't rocket science!

Now lets all admire my handiwork.......

 Said impression. Tota= <3 <3

 A proud peacock, basic flowers. Not aiming for perfection..........

Imperfections are there, but not really visible + I don't care......

If you want to buy the real thing, The Color Caravan carries these beauties.......

...........plus loads of other little goodies!







* Let me bring to your notice yet another attempt at a feeble pun. I crack myself up!! LOL!!!! Yes I can DIY (DIM??)

Disclaimer (don't you just love them!?!): Not an advertisement for any product. No paybacks-- cash , kind or unmentionable were involved. I run a clean kitchen. I doubt if Michaels or the paper clay company even know I exist. And I couldn't care less!!!! :D

Where's the party?

Are you feeling it too--that post-festivities slump???? Last week I couldn't move fast enough to get those lights down and tree stowed away!! But funnily enough, even while that whirlwind blur of festivities is barely over, I want some gaiety again!! I'm blaming the weather (again!)--the days are shorter than you've ever seen,  and to add insult to injury that snow/fog (take your pick, depending on your geographic location, LOL!) is making your teeth chatter like a castanet! Don't worry, I have a solution for those blues.....click here to go to my guest post over on Tanvi's fabulous blog!!!

Oh, and refreshments are being served, so grab some chai and popcorn, before it all disappears!!

PS: In case you want to practice your dance moves for the party--here's how we roll!!ROFL!!! step by step instructions on getting your groove on (links to YouTube, so if you're accessing it from work, make sure your boss ain't around! *wink*). Let the paaaaaarty begin!!!

Lofty ideas on a Monday morning!

Hello my sweets!!! how are you? Have you settled into your weekly routine yet? Or are you still finding it hard to wake up (at the crack of dawn it seems!!), rubbing sleep-weary eyes as you make that cup o' joe or liquid gold (chai). I'm still grumbly when I wake up--given the chance, I'd like to crawl right back into bed for another couple of hours. Oh well. We do what needs to be done.

Came across a few pretty pictures that I thought of sharing with you....

 Apartment Therapy. Check out the entire home tour here.

Rue Magazine.

Desire to Inspire.

Desire to Inspire.

Hope this snaps you out of the Monday morning blues!! How is your Monday going so far?

PS: The pink picture found me (I didn't go looking for it *wink*!!)

Sigh....

Some lovely interiors. Good morning, Friday!

All pictures: the work of photographer Paola Miozza. Discovered via Desire to Inspire.

On realizing the dream.......

I really DO believe this. Sometimes the only thing holding us back is our lack of conviction (in our abilities). I  could have named this post "mantra for the new year"; but this really is so much bigger than that isn't it?

 Via.

Yes, we can! What are your dreams?

Well, color me ...

..pink? So it seems that Pantone's color of the year is honeysuckle (a refined way of saying pink!). I guess we'd better get used to an onslaught of pink interiors in magazines and in the cyber (design ) world. Now, I can take pink in small doses (I think!?!) but I'm still quite curious to see how the designers pull it off--it'll be an interesting (and colorful!) ride for sure. Meanwhile, though I'm not sure whether this pink table is coming home with me, I most certainly am coveting that jewelry!!! What do you think it is? necklace? kamrband ? (a waist chain--probably the origin of the word "cummerbund")--whatever it is, it totally makes the picture don't you think?

 

 Via Elements of Style.

Do you think you'll be embracing pink this year? I saw some delicious examples of pink in Indian decor this past year (click here and here to see what I'm talking about) but I'm still pretty much on the fence. I've never been one to follow trends, but I think I'll be watching (from a safe distance, LOL!) this one unfold. The thing is, I have this gorgeous bedspread that I've never used because it's-well, it's pink. and I've always felt guilty about not using it--but my entire home is done up in earth colors and I still have to figure out a way to bring in the pink without it being too girly-girl....so I'm making no commitments, just looking to see if I can put that beautiful fabric to good use. Meanwhile, dear reader, fear not, my obsession with turquoise (at least in the virtual world) is still going strong--so be prepared for more turquoise (and some teal!) this year. 

Here's to a bright and colorful 2011! :)

Ooooh, I could So live here!

Via.

 Do you have a space like this? That is one cozy corner!!!

This space would be so easy to achieve---you need a comfy chair. A pretty throw (I want the one in the picture!!!). A pretty rug. Stacks of books subbing for a side table. A pretty lamp (I might replace the one pictured for a  more ethnic one like this.) A few pretty paintings/posters. Some frames resting against the wall (I'm so lazy with hanging things up--this display of art is right up my alley!) Lovely hand-embroidered cushions...This space has such a strong seventies vibe to it--I love it!! What about you?

Welcome, 2011!

Hello, 2011---it took you a whole year to get here, didn't it? I'm just glad you made it, (I'm glad I made it(!!))...well, I'm right here waiting, with my arms open and my head held high. Hello again....

 Via.

Here's to new beginnings, to hope, to peace, to inspiration and beauty (the timeless kind, not the skin-deep kind)..... I've never been one to make resolutions, the new year never held much meaning for me other than the late night party---pretty much a youngster's view of the world. This past year changed a lot of things for me (I think I grew up a little!) I understood the meaning of the words cherish and loss and the true meaning of the word hope. Well here it is, a year which brings the promise of hope with it (am I naive to subject "time" to such high expectations? Maybe. But as always, hope reigns and gives us all something to look forward to.)  May 2011 be "the good year"**.

2010 was not all bad--this was the year that I gifted this blog to myself--the year I made some amazing friends, discovered this most supportive and inspiring world out there.....the world would be such a beautiful place if all it's (human) inhabitants were this kind and supportive!.....The blog pretty much has taken on a life of it's own in these past few months--I'm watching it's evolution, as much a spectator as you, dear reader.  There may be some changes on this blog this year.....some good, some freakin' awesome and some not so good.... I hope you'll stay by my side as I continue on this journey. It's lovely to have your company, please stay a while..... :)

** Am SO NOT referring to the tyre company here.