Stale News ...

I know its a real old news but my fav blog apartment therapy has this small cool contest going on, where in they are featuring apartments less than 1000 sq feet. Do check out what people marvelous job people have done of tiniest of living space. Some of the places are so much fun and inspiring ..surely worth a dekko

Join the big party...

Best Wishes !!

Happy Easter

May God's love and power, fill your heart with joy  today and forever.

Happy Easter !

I'll always have a sunrise.... I'll always have a sunset

There is something so serene , enchanting and absolutely riveting about both sunrise and sunsets. Admittedly I haven’t witnessed many sunrises (def not a morning person ) but loads of beautiful sunsets all across the world .

Lane of beautiful auroville bathed in morning sun ...

And probably for the first time, we started this new year by watching sunrise in Pondicherry ..I have a feeling the year might be better beacuse of such a beautiful start

And now for beautiful sunsets ..this is one is in Colombo, view from our room

In Langkawi .. from a very adventurous and memorable trip with my best friend

This one is in Chamba , catch the play of sun rays on the rippling water of ravi river

From our first trip to pondicherry

Bondi Beach Australia ..

Check out the expressions ...lovee it

Mighty Al Burj with mighter setting sun

Oh and this one is in Dharmshala, love the play of colors in the sky against the dark background of hills

From the balcony of our house during "Chhatt" Pooja

And this one is from long time back in Kanyakumari...Sunrise on my first trip with husband ...

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...................................................

Multitasking

As apartment size get smaller and smaller the need for having multipurpose / multitasking furniture gets stronger. So, I started searching the net for some simple, space saving “functional” furniture and here are some of my finds

A “healthy” sofa

(Designed for Italian furniture manufacturer Campeggi, Tobias Fraenzel’s )

(Design by Sakura Adachi)

And your dining room to bed room problem solved with this single piece of clever furniture

(from Japanitup.com)

For some ME time - a chair / storage space

If you want to convert that tiny office room to a kids room, this is ideal

  

                      

(From networx.com)

And you what the best part is , one less furniture means , one less tree is being cut down , this could be our bit in going green

Yayyy !!!

First comment on my blog ever by this lovely lady Patricia Torres . Super excited about it, atleast someone is reading my blog J Best part she is a finance manager too and writes 3 lovely blogs with some of her friends. Her interior blog Amitpatty, Coloursdekkor and photography blog colourcorridor are super fun and now in my list of daily reads

In the summer time when the weather is high

As the temperature in Delhi starts hitting 40 degrees (and it is just April yet !!!) , I was looking for ways to keep my home cool, without switching on AC 24x7. Some of the things you could try.

First and foremost Unplug/Switch Off Unused Electronics, Not only they increase your electricity bill – even while in sleep mode - they also convert some of that power into heat. By unplugging everything you can and putting the rest on switchable surge protectors, you can potentially save yourself a lot of money and unnecessary heat.

Paint the rooftop white, white being a reflective color would reflect out the heat and keep the house cooler

Wayyy back when we were kids, there was a whole ritual associated with buying Khus mat at beginning of summer, putting it up and making sure its kept moist through the day . This the most natural way of keeping the home cool throughout the summer.

Change your drape to thick cotton drapes in light shades can keep the heat away without blocking the sunlight. Two layers of drapes with an inner lining can improve insulation. Traditional cane or wicker blinds in light hues can add more colour and beauty to your interiors and at the same time keep the coolness in.

 
Hang a clothesline close to the windows / doors so the breeze blowing in through the wet clothes cools the air around. Hanging wet clothes inside the room on a metal clothes stand can keep the indoors cooler.

During my college days, staying in hostel, we had another innovative way to keep ourselves cool , we would dip the bed sheet in cold water  wring it till its almost dry and wrap it around ourselves and switch on the fan, it always worked J 

and ofcorse surrounding yourself with lot of greenery would really really bring the temperature down and keep your mood upbeat

Let me know if you try any of these ideas this summer or share your ideas ..

New babe in town - Prismma

Just read about new online design magazine launch at thekeybunch  named Prismma (meaning "Light"). . After devouring all ~250 pages of it i am in serious awe of the team which has put together such beautiful piece, they have talked about basic stuff like how and whys of getting the floor plan right and some new age kitchen design as well as new stores like Portside cafe and couple of features on the bloggers in design world and last but not the least some yummy recipes . All in all a great magazine and definitely worth a dekko.

Month of festivals

I always used to think Oct / Nov was month of festivals but this April i realised THIS is actually the mother of all festival months...

Let me count Ugadi, Gudi Padwa, Ramnavmi, Baisakhi , Bihu, Easter , all hindu new year ....well what a exhaustive list ...just think about trying to celebrate all , it will be a month long party











And since its Baisakhi today, Wish you a very happy Baisakhi....



...spread this smile, we always need more

Weekend gateaway - Hill Fort Kesroli

So this weekend , we went to Hill Fort Kesorli , (about 170 km from Delhi takes about 3.5 hours)  the intention was to check out the place and if  we (Husband, Friend and his wife) like the place we would stay back. Honestly i was not too keen but this is democracy so we went by majority and decided to stay back . All in all not a bad experience ….


As per the advert it is a 14th century Hill-Fort and now is the oldest heritage site in India where one could stay.It is maintained by same group that has other heritage site like Neemrana Fort , Pautudi Palace etc..


Some of pics from the place ..u decide whether u would venture there or not


As you enter the fort ......

The courtyard ...

View from fort

In evening

Way Up...

Very interesting peg in the room

My grandmom's place had switches like these

rajasthani style chair

More pics from inside the room

Summer is here...

So i have changed the layout of the blog :)

(Image)

Going Green

With summer sun already blazing high on our head, I was looking for some ideas to give some respite for the long summer months to come. There is nothing like a having a garden to escape from all the heat dust and madness outside but in a place like Delhi , having a garden is a luxury available to limited fews , that’s when the interesting concept of having vertical garden in house comes to our rescue.

Wikihow and Ehow  have  articles to help you build the vertical garden , sharing some pictures of vertical garden to tempt you to give this idea a try

(Image via Homedesigndecorating)

(Image via Newsofart)

(Image via treehugger)

And how about having pouches growing all your favorite herbs ?

And for these simply brilliant idea we should be thanking  French botanist Partick Blanc who first came up with the idea of vertical gardens !!

(Image via webecoist)