Clip it, Frame it

A clip-board made of a naked frame & a clothes-line: to put up pictures, notes and messages for your loved ones.

clip-board for my wife on our anniversary

I love my office pin-board. It makes life at work so much simpler. With all my to-dos, tasks and notes can just be pinned up, with the information being easily accessible. And once the notes are converted to action, throw them out to make space for new ones. So I thought it would be cool, if I had a similar board at home. Where I can leave love messages for my wife and my wife can write up chores for me to do. Apart from the notes, it could be used as a flash board for putting up pictures and small snippets here and there.

But for my home I wanted to make the pin-board a little less boring than the one I have on my office desk. So I thought of rather making a pin-board, I can make something more like a clip-board; where things could be clipped on and clipped off. So I got a picture frame and removed the outer glass casing of it. I took a regular jute cord and zigzagged it across the back cardboard casing of the picture frame. Made grooves on the edge of the casing so that the cord would stay in place. After all the criss-crossing the picture frame had this naked geometric abstract look.

So after the base of my clip-board was completed all I needed were a few clips to attach the notes & pictures to the so-formed cord mesh. I got these really neat small sized wooden clips which complements the other browns of my frame so very well. Finally my framed clothes-line is ready to be used. Now the only thing required is to put my notes, pictures & snippets.

We can personalize with whatever we want to. Put up messages, write down your shopping list, put pictures – and once bored of them just clip a few new ones!

Santa in a Jar

A miniature Christmas scene packed in a jar!

Merry Christmas on and all. Its that time of the year when every face bears a smile and every heart is full of joy. Everything associated with Christmas is so beautiful and comforting. Though in India, it  is not popularly celebrated but still the vibes in urban India are felt around -  with churches being lit up, patisseries smoked with freshly baked plum cakes and parties going on to the wee hours of the morning.

In most offices, we have secret santa doing the rounds, wherein every employee acts as a secret santa for another employee (secretively of course). So for my secret santa gift, we decided to give santa himself!

The idea was to re-create a miniature Christmas scene in a jar filled with santa, an x-mas tree, gifts, bells, snow, etc. So all we needed was an empty jar and we bought small sized Christmas décor (that floods the markets at this time).

We put some cotton as snow at the base, then placed a mini Christmas tree in the back, flanked it with boxed gifts, with finally a small little santa standing right in front. We sealed the jar and placed a little bell around the lid.

All the joy of Christmas was packed up in this jar to bring about loads of happiness. What better than gifting santa himself, so to ask himself what gifts you desire. Ho ho ho!!!

Mood-board de Paris

Create a living room décor with the luxe & elegance of Paris.

Well we are obsessed with Paris. And why shouldn’t one be. The city with its all its architectural marvels, its buzzing street cafes and its glittering nights, all culminate to deliver the most romantic mood one could ever be in.

In order to re-live the romance, we created a mood-board inspired by Paris itself. We had this beautiful picture of Eiffel, lit against the purple sky. From this image we tried to create our very own version of a Parisian glamorous room.  

This glittering picture of the Eiffel served as our mood-board inspiration

To start off with, a purple-pink textured wallpaper helped us re-create the night sky. A tufted black sofa is perfect to replicate the classic nature of Paris. We put an opulent arching-gold-metallic chandelier to bring in the glamour & glitter.

Now for a couple of DIY activities: an old vintage leather suitcase is a brilliant candidate to up-cycle it as a centre table; all we need to do is just add 4 wooden legs to its base as per the height we require. Next we can make a clock out of a cycle’s tyre spokes. The metallic mesh of the cycle spokes give a great representation to the metallic framework of the Eiffel.

To add to the Paris-drama, we can blow up a vintage Eiffel picture and frame it in gold. Also, a Victorian-styled end-table compliments the entire décor and lends good functionality.

Our romantic mood-board is all ready. With purples, golds, blacks and all the vintage French glamour, it’s your time to re-create “une soirée à Paris”

  

Book-ends for the Bride & Groom

Alphabets & figures: customized book-ends  made as a wedding gift.

Its December time… and its wedding time! My wife’s very close friend Richa from Dubai recently got married in Delhi to this guy from Australia named Akshit: quite a global get-together I say!

For this special occasion of theirs we wanted to make a really special gift! Knowing that both of them were very fond of reading, we made for them book-ends in a personalized fashion.

We loved their wedding card, which had these cute-little cartoonish figures of the bride & groom. And that became our source of inspiration – to use those figures as a part of our creation.

The wedding card was our inspiration

Now, to make a book-end is a rather simple process. All we need to do is get 4 blocks of wood and join two of them in an L-shape (make 2 of these), so as to make the book rests on the standing block and the sleeping one becomes the base. Once the structure is ready, we can play around to make any design to match any concept and to personalize it the way we want.

We got the bride & groom figures printed on wood and made them stand on either of the book-end -block. In order to give a backdrop, in wood we carved out their name’s 1^st alphabet (A & R) - we did this in the Hindi typography so as to give a more intricate & beautiful design.

The wood blocks were polished a nice dark brown and the alphabets we painted them gold: to give that rich wedding feel and to complement our standing bride & groom. 

Our book-ends turned out to look super cute & creative! With the figures of the bride & groom and with their associated alphabets, it was a double scoop of personalization. The couple totally loved it. And that gave us a double scoop of happiness.

A little personalization goes a long way!

Copper Blush: Dulux Colour of the Year 2015

Replacing the cool blues and greens of recent years, the colour palette for 2015 brings a warmer spectrum of pinks, reds and oranges, with ‘Copper Blush’ named by Dulux as Colour of the Year 2015. This warm hue combines perfectly with neutrals and crisp whites and will be beautifully complemented by natural wood and metallic finishes such as gold and of course copper.

These pictures are from Dulux, who say their choice of colour reflects emerging social, economic and design trends around the world.

Louise Tod, the senior global colour designer at Dulux says: “The theme for the 12th edition of Colour Futures is about finding new, subtle ways to add colour to our lives, whether that is through exploring under-utilised spaces, in our relationships with each other or in the environment around us.”

Great on its own, the colour also combines perfectly with pinks, neutrals, whites and other orange hues, as well as metallic colours such as gold. It also beautifully complements wood tones and can be brought to life by flesh pinks and earthy tones of clay.

Dilli Haat

A melting pot of art, color, craft & culture. Falling in love with this place is the only option.

Recently, we went to Delhi for a full-on Punjabi wedding of a friends’. Not having seen much of Delhi, we decided to spend 2 days prior, to do all our touristy activities. After visiting the Red Forts, Chandi Chowks, Delhi Gates, and all the other must-haves, we finally wound up at Dilli Haat which is an open air pan-India  art & craft village, where people & curio shops  from various states present & sell their local artifacts.

The buzz & vibe at the entrance itself made me feel that I am going to love this place. Once inside: Delhi gets transformed into this colorful bazaar of enthralling stalls, colorful artifacts & diverse people! The numerous thatched roof shops and kiosks from various Indian states, proudly display their own local artisan talent and goods. Products offered include wood carvings, embellished footwear, sophisticated fabric and drapery, gems, beads, brassware, metal crafts, silk and wool fabrics, and many more amazing articles.

The best thing about this place is that unlike the traditional weekly markets, Dilli Haat is a permanent set-up. So all through the year, whenever we want we can soak in a variety of cultural traditions & artifacts of India.

If you happen be in Delhi, do make sure to a pay visit to Dilli Haat, which is not just a market place; it’s rather a showpiece of traditional Indian culture- a forum where rural life and folk art are brought closer to an urban clientele.

For more information, check-out: http://www.delhitourism.gov.in/delhitourism/tourist_place/dilli_haat.jsp

Live, Love, Laugh & Create

Just felt like expressing myself. So put it in paint & words on a stone; the philosophy by what I live by: “LIVE, LOVE, LAUGH & CREATE”

These 4 words sum it all up. "Nothing else to say!"