A makeover, over morning tea ... ;) ... one from the archives

My image file dates these pictures to 8.27 am, 23rd July 2003 ... about 20 days into my first bought home ... I know I have shared this apartment here,before ... but just felt like sharing ... what must have triggered the following chain of events ... a lovely SanFransico morning ... the most gorgeous blue sky ... a slight chill in the air ... the beautiful eucalyptus swaying in the wind outside.

Me and my morning tea ... along with a  boring morning newspaper ( a ritual I still follow... complete with the useless boring newspaper) ... ;))

And then, a morning bright idea moment ... flash ... off comes out the camera to capture what shall be history ...

O.k it wasn't all that innocent ... I clicked them  ... the house, all calm in creams and white and mailed it to husband dear ... who was at work, of course he thought they were sweet pictures from a wife getting bored at home  ...

... bored  ... who me ... yep ! right... ;)))) .... giggle-giggle ...

Image files list this picture taken at 1.27 in the afternoon ... ;)) Hell!of course I e-mailed it over to the hardworking people off at work ... ;))) ... lol ... and yes! it got him cruising back home to really see if it was all true ... :)))))))))))))

.... oh! yep ... the entrance got a make over too ... :) Honey, I painted the walls ...

Guess, alls well that ends well ... warning ... please don't try this out at home in case you've been married for more then 10 years ... ;) and your husband may not be in a sporting mood with the color tingling your senses... :))

And in case you've been married long enough ...;)) ... just go for black and wait for him to tell you he still loves you, never the less ..;))))))))))) ... either ways ... have fun.

A paint job and colors I am working with ... :)

Here's a sneak peek into my curret project ... and as every Interior Designer will tell you the most difficult clients are your own family ... really, nothing can challenge your creative wits and credentials like home turf... :)

 Luckily, my dreams of messing around with black ... didn't meet the same fate as the hot pink story 2 yrs. ago ... :)) ... and oh! yes ... have to mention ... the ones most in love with the choice have been my 6yr. old and her friends  ... thankyou kiddos ... ;))

  But honestly ... this has been one fun time experimenting ... and pushing myself to  not compromise or chicken out. Doesn't that happen to you ... you always have this gorgeous color in mind ... and dream of putting it on your walls ... only to chicken out for the more 'safer' colors and shades.

... but come on, there's nothing like playing it safe ... its the walls of your own space ... how much more personal can it get ... and to not have the colors you want... :) Inspite of all logical reasoning ... it still takes something to say yes! and not wake up in the middle of the night with knots in your stomach.

  I am working with Asain paints for the complete painting job and not just the paints. And I must say this... so far ... with just half the job done ... I am happy ... ofcourse full review of the Asian Paints  painting services ... well! only after the full job is done ... :)

 Hope you are ready with those queries of yours ... feel free to find me here on blogger or on FB or e-mail me at rajeesood(at)gmail(dot)com

Will share a lil' more in the next few posts ... about the colors I am using ... tiny hitches and glitches. Hope you'll join in and make this more fun.

Inspiration ... ;)

Back in 1997, we designed a dining room unit, for a site we were working on in Pune ... went crazy with the handles and knobs we used on it. And everytime I look at diff. pretty ones ... makes me want to do that all over again.
This morning I e-mailed my old collegue this picture ... its a bunch of color pop she wanted for just placing in a bowl ... :) ... great to know I am not the only one doing simple loney things .... ;)) ... I got company ... ;)
This was a special request, pick for her ... all inspired by our Hardware section over at Rajee Sood Home ... :)

A centre piece and lets warm up the indoors for winter ... :)

... its winter, .... that time of the year when plants actually are alright coming indoors at my place ... and I have been feeling sad about my coffee table looking dull and boring ... :) And yep! had a lil' experiment thingy somewhere in the back of my head ... ;)

 ... so , what do you get if you have a certain experiment itch  ... an ol' ceramic pot ( yep, see no bottom tray to hold water) ... and some new succulents you spied at the nursery ... :))))))))))

 ... looking at them all tiny lil' ones ... its not so exciting  ... no filled up looking pots ... aaaah! ... what do you do .... :) ...

... o.ky so I sweet talked my daughter into sharing her collecion of shiny stones from our recent road trip across India ... and guess what I even got a few tiny shells put in for free ... hey! these kids can be generous to mums, at times ... ;)

 ... yes , it was a concern how to save the polish of my coffee table .... well ! I just placed  this slate tile, I had lying around ... and yep! it will need to be taken out to be watered and kept there till it completely drains ... but thats cool with me ...

... ah! did get into trouble with the lil' brat falling in love with how mum, lil' project looked awesome all because she helped in with her shells and stones ... so that was not going to be it ... ''mama, now that you are so happy with that look ... I'll be real nice and go decorate the entire garden with my collections " ... NOoooooooooooooo ............. help me ... some body , ... that was not what I had bargained for ...

Organising with a bit of a pizzaz ... :)

 ... getting organised shouldn't have to be boring and a matter- of-fact affair ... a bit of unpredictability makes it quite fun ...

 ... seeing something you did not expect makes it interesting ... if you are getting as bored as me of the things around the kitchen ... may be you ought to let those twitching figures work a bit of magic in the kitchen ... Oh! I'm not talking about cooking ... :):)

 ... do stay tuned for more stuff happening on the kitchen front ... I'm all in the mood for the makeover ... o.k so its going to be a very cosmetic makeover ... never the less I need a change ... I need my kitchen to inspire me ... and excite me ... boring kitchens are such a put off .
Are you also having... Oh! I'm so bored of my kitchen moments ... :):) ... join the club ... ;) and feel free to share your thoughts ...

A simple home solution ... messy garden hose finds a home ... :)

...I feel in love with this cast iron tag at the most unlikely of places to find it ... :):) ... at a road side market ... that sells many such things for a steal . Basically what they are, is just discarded / rejected / or just last season samples and seconds. And yep! mostly meant for  the export market...

 ... o.k so I loved what I saw ... loved the finish and it looked worn out  ... love that patina too ... :):) ...

Hey! do I have a solution to a problem that has been nagging me for a while now. So the ssue is my hose pipe in the garden ... looks super ugly are strewn across ... and I have not been able to think of a neat solution to put it away ...

...ah! that pile is a neat look ... believe me it gets worse on a normal day ... ;) ...

...not anymore ... :) ... all organised and completely off the lawn ...

 ... its sure fun to find simple organising solutions around the house ...  helps keep you focused on the look you are working to create . And making sure clutter doesn't ruin all the beautifying projects ... :)

Would love to hear your thoughts about how organising works for you ...

Crazy month of May ... :)

 so I designed the tutu for my lil' girl ...;) ...I was a wanna be fashion designer once... :)

 I have loads of e-mails ... facebook reminders and comments ... for missing out regular updates on my blog ... the honest truth is ...  every year, around this time.. ( and this is just how it will always be) ... cause it is a real- real  and I mean it when I double emphasise it ... really crazy time in our household ...
It was Sarah's B'day mid month and the tom-tomming about it starts early ... that's when my tensions soar high ... and I wake up in the middle of the night imagining lil' 5 yr. olds hate me for a lousy party. ... come on seriously... ask any mom of lil' 5yr. old's ...

packed and ready to be shipped out to the clubhouse

 I always want to take pictures of the entire setup ... once things have been designed and the styling for the final look is complete ... Aah! dear me ... do I speak of a picture perfect life ... that's not how it really happens  does .. it ...if you are going solo ... its crazy at the last minute ... the cake needs  to be fetched ... its scorching hot outside it could melt  ... the extra hands are not on time ... oh! this year the balloon guy almost stood me up ... #*!@*#% ... :):) ...

ready with my flowers for the tables ... God! save them from the scorching heat

... so no matter all you plan the  ... last miutes are all crazy pulling the whole thing off and I miss out having someone photograph it for me. Luckily this year a dear friend helped me with the kiddies at play ... pic's .... but the MY KIND OF PHOTOGRAPHY ... sigh ...
But never the less ... I am really inspired by one of the readers who wrote to me saying she loves to refer back to my blog everytime she plans her parties ... well ! how about it ... in the next few posts I want to share with you my two cents on some quick party styling for kiddies ... Oh! if not for the dead line ... I'd say I love doing those crafty lil' styling ideas ... plus I'll share with you some of my fav. party blogs to refer to when planning your next party ... hope you'll come back and join me  ... and yep ! I'd for you to share your fav. lil' tricks for the parties ... leave me a note and I'd absolutely love to hear from you...

A short and sweet makeover story ... :):)

I have been settling my books in ... some shelf designing could sure help ... and as I potter around ... I remembered these old frames my co-sister and I picked up in Ajmer. All striped of paint ... and dirty  ... but we both fell in love with the metal work ... it has that feel of genuinely-crafted cast iron frame and not a cheap rip off ...

 .... and  what is a lil' bit of cleaning and some gold spray paint (remember the one I used here) ... well! how about, quite a happy and sweet makeover story ...

... what am I doing with the shelving ... :):) ... another post I guess ... but one thing is for sure ... every once in a while we can all do with some pepup projects ... I like some instant fix kinds ... ;) How about you ... :):)
Hope you liked another lil' story about what magic some lil' projects can do ... would love to hear what you think ... :):)

The magic of gold ... ;)

 One of my fav. craft projects is a can  of gold spray paint  ... and exploring the next thing that'll look ...WOW !  all sprayed up ... :) ... seriously ... I've tried ... bug infested dry leaves of almond trees ... you can see I used those for a tablescape here  ... dried flowers ... fruits ... and I have to say  ... they do look nicey ... :)

... so when the good folks from Hindustan Times called up for that photoshoot and interview I mentioned in an earlier post ...  I was a lil' hesitant ... honestly haven't had much going with the home projects ...

...and so to get the house ready for some good shots ... I got cracking with accents ... and ofcourse the old fav. can of gold spray popped out of the store ... :)

...this whole gold thingy with gold spray paint started quite by accident ... as a new bride ... and no budget for a home do-up ... I once used a spray painted river rock as a paper weight on all my magazines on the coffee table ... thanks to that windy apartment ... this idea has stayed with me ...

... only this time I used small pebbles I had collected from the beaches of Porbandar (Gujrat) last year ...

... oh! this big one I stole from Sarah ... Hey! nothing like a smart talking mum eh!... ;) ... uhuh ! no harm done  ... my lil' girl is really happy with  her gold stone (I did return it to her after this shoot ) ... what did you think ... :)

... the paint may be the same ... but  the texture of the stone or the thingy you are spraying ... is a defining factor ... when it comes to the final look ...

... the cool ... magic working ... can of spray paint ... you'd actually get a whole range of brands ...  the stationer's keep brands like the can you see in this picture ... but your hardware guy will have a whole diff.brand range ... and ofcourse more shades of gold than you'd be comfortable to decide between... :)

... some old ... shell plates came in handy to display my collection ... this time ...

... hope you got some idea brewing in your mind ... may be silver is the color for you ... oh! have you been thinking of covering some old piece of furniture with spray paint ... wow go for it ... of if not than hang on ... I'm sure I'll be doing some more goofy things around the place ... I'll sure give you that final push of confidence ... ;)

And I'll look forward to hearing from you incase you kind of likey some ideas here ... I sure hope you do ... :)