Tuesday, 5 May 2015

Once Upon a….

Sounds like a line from a long forgotten fairy tale?
Today Rang Decor brings to you one such narrative where dreams become reality when one decides to go that extra mile.

Once Upon A Tea Time…a blog by Priya Iyer tells a story, a visual story of creative individuals, bohemian art and global design all painted against the backdrop of floral tea cups, pattern play of hand block print, Suzani textiles and of vibrant dreams.

Priya Iyer is a research biologist and public health professional by training but she loves sharing her great love of global design and eclectic decor on her blog where the readers are invited to a virtual tea party with delightful imagery of decorative cups of tea and where creative conversations are initiated.

Having grown up in Middle East and spent the last 18 years in the United States, she says that her style is more global, bordering on Bohemian-style and her love for block print patterns and textiles can't be denied.

To commemorate 5 years of blogging in 2013, Priya decided to start a digital publication- A magazine. She even decided to try publishing it on a monthly basis. 

She says, "With every issue I wanted to tell stories, introduce amazing people with boundless creativity and share them with my readers. For the whole of last year, we published on Issuu and our magazines were available for free."
A glimpse into her studio…

Here are some visuals of Once Upon A Tea Time... magazine evolving with each issue.




Priya describes the Once Upon A Tea Time magazine as a space where the readers can dive deeper into the stories behind a great product or read about the creative journeys undertaken by an artist.
 …all this over cups of tea.


The Anniversary Issue…



Publishing a magazine demands dedication and hard work. From the editorial team to the wonderful people that OUATT magazine collaborates with to publish every issue. What Priya learnt is that she really wanted to put together the curated platform and to make their  efforts sustainable and to grow, they needed to transition into a paid publication. 

Once Upon A Tea Time…Magazine can now be subscribed to or bought on Joomag.com

The April, 2015 Issue was the first paid issue and with the May, 2015 Issue Priya plans to bring a lot more to the table.
A new Audio feature to make it more interactive!

Talking about the new feature she says, "Growing up, the two things that inspired me most were books and the radio, and the two are still my favorite things to do in my down time. (I even tried out for a radio presenter job back when I was 17 but they thought I was too young.) Bringing the magazine to the point where it integrates both has been a cherished goal and with our May issue, we are there. I can talk to you and so do some of our contributors, and it promises to be inspiring and reflect the best traditions of storytelling."

Click here to hear what Priya has to say about the Audio feature in the magazine. 


OUATT Magazine shares few exclusive visuals for Rang Decor readers from their Mother's Day celebration ideas in their May 2015 Issue.




It's wonderful to see Once Upon A Tea Time... spread it's wings from a blog to a magazine to a paid interactive publication.
Dreams do come true and hope you enjoyed this beautiful story as much I did with my big mug of tea.

Rang Decor wishes Once Upon A Tea Time…magazine and Priya Iyer loads of success in her future endeavours…!

(Images by OUATT and are copyrighted)



Thursday, 30 April 2015

The Perfect Place for A Barn Door!






Hubby mentioned that he wanted hot and cold water in the garage and that's all it took for me to get my mind racing on what all I would do to give him what he wanted and me what I wanted.


Here you can get a feel for the way our four car garages set...The door in the middle, leads to the mudroom.


There is a breezeway between the two garages.



If you are like me, you love all the barn

Monday, 20 April 2015

Shades of Spring Open House Party ...

Greetings, friends!

I'm happy to be joining several of my blogging friends today for our "Shades of Spring" open house!


And, as my "shade of Spring," I'm sharing our little sunroom. 

Set right off of the kitchen, this cozy spot has seen its fair share of decorating in the 10 months we've lived here ...


Its current "identity crisis" involved trading out all of the furniture in there for white slipcovered wing chairs (that used to be in the great room), and the duck egg accent chest (Kirkland's), along with cowhide rug (IKEA), that used to be in our sitting room.


Now that I had my staple pieces placed, it was time to add a bit of Spring!  That's when I grabbed a glass demi-john I had on hand and filled it with my favorite "go to" Spring floral branches from Michael's.


Wine corks always make a fun "filler" ...


Wine, anyone?  How about a faux grape?


Thankfully, our curtains (from Fabric Showcase in Myrtle Beach) play nicely with any season!


Maybe this "shade of Spring" blanket will invite you to curl up on a sunny afternoon and enjoy a good read that I have resting on a chalk painted stool (that is standing in as a "makeshift" side table).


A woven demi-john from TJMaxx was sitting in our storage room long enough ... soooo out it came, too!


And, as always, nothing says Spring like a cute faux plant from IKEA, now does it?


As I don't have any art on the walls (yet), pretty white plates help to fill the space for now.


And, there it is ... our little sunroom with a few shades of Spring.  Next, it will be time to add in coastal accents for the warm Summer months!


Thanks so much for taking the time to visit!

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Please be sure and visit these fabulous ladies ... their talent is sure to inspire you!



Chateau Chic




Far Above Rubies



French Country Cottage



From My Front Porch to Yours


Housepitality Designs



Savvy Southern Style



Shabby FuFu



Stone Gable






Thursday, 16 April 2015

Rock To Rocking Rock

Last weekend I gave my garden TLC after almost 10 months. Which is very very long time and unusual for me to stay away from my garden. Well, after spending few hours there in my garden re- potting, manuring, pruning and dead heading, not only my garden looks neat, clean and reinvigorated  now but it was a soothing and therapeutic for me too. 

Pebble Painting

When I was re-potting a plant, I found a rock in soil and the very next moment I wound up all my gardening work, got the rock on my desk and began playing with my imaginations. 

Garden Accessories

Though there are lots of inspiration available on various sources on internet for rock painting but what satisfies me the most is when I paint my own imagination. I thought I will make a bird then I though a flower then peacock was in my mind but then I saw a butterfly in my garden and that's where I drew my inspiration from.  


Garden Accessories

Painted butterfly in vibrant colours and gave background a mottled effect that I learnt from my mother when I was child. Whenever I paint I always think of her :)
Then the top of the rock was looking little blank and my butterfly was lonely too. So I painted everyone's favourite frangipani flower and on the other side of the rock painted some tiny yellow flowers. 

Garden Accessories


Now it was time to bring it back in the garden and see.....
it has added charm to my garden.

Garden Accessories


So what if my dwarf Ixora has stopped blooming, I can add colours this way :)

Garden Accessories

Now can someone please give me some more rocks and pebbles. My hands are still itching to paint more...!!

Garden Accessories

Would love to hear from you. Did you like my painted rock. 
Stay tuned to know what's exciting coming next.



Wednesday, 15 April 2015

A New Dresser and A Special Girl!




I have been away from my computer for a bit. Have you missed me?

I am the proud new Grandma of a beautiful baby girl, my daughter's first precious gift from God.

Oh do I ever have a birth story for you! I will not get into the heavy details, but let's just say, we really were exhaustively overjoyed to have Isla (Eye-La) Rose come into this world after 40 hours of labor!

Hubby and I got a

Sunday, 12 April 2015

Inspiring Eminent Artist: Sabita Sahu

To gaze on beautiful artworks for all day long and meeting talented artists virtually has become my passion. I love to know how they discovered their passion and how they started following their heart. Today I am welcoming an artist from Hyderabad to be a part of 'Inspiring Eminent Artist' series on my blog. Dear readers sit back, relax and enjoy reading about Sabita Sahu, a wonderful painter.
Here is what she has to say about her passion......
Painting


I am Sabita Sahu basically from Orissa, educated as Bioinformatician and moved to Hyderabad after marriage. Married to a very supportive husband who has nurtured the growing seed of creativity in me and we are blessed with a baby boy who has turned 3 now.

Here you can see the mother child paintings done by Sabita. Aren't they depicting the pure and unconditional love between mother and child. I loved all the details.

Paintings

Definitely the praising go to my husband who has supported me to start painting by gifting me all painting stuffs and asked me to bring my painting alive to this world.And slowly from then i could get a grip for painting and started painting new themes and this was how this journey started for me. 
Besides painting I have the burning desire of creating stories of what those paintings really mean to me and so I started blogging to share the stories behind each painting. Women and plants are my all time inspiration and so you will find these as common in my paintings.


Seeing her paintings is a pure joy. How vibrant and detailed they are. In these below paintings I love the different shades of womanhood.

Paintings


I must say that, with Disha's inspiring tips and ideas of balcony garden, I started my own balcony garden and trust me, the greenery washes out dust of my soul and make me fresh every morning and evening when I see them dancing with joy to the slow blowing breeze. 

And that's what I love about my blog. It is a place that connects me with some awesome and wonderful people out there, who never fail to encourage me.

Painting

Blogging is totally new to me and I promise I will learn more and keep painting and posting more. Coming to my future plans I have a idea to run a small nursery garden and also setup a business relating my artworks.



Paintings


Here Are some links where you can connect with Sabita.

My blogwww.color2drape.blogspot.com
My facebook pagewww.facebook.com/color2drape
My email idcolor2drape@gmail.com

And when I asked her if she has some message for 3D readers, here's what she said-
" Listen what your heart say and go for it , rest all universe will set for you and all those you have dreamed for, comes your way".

Hope all enjoyed reading about Sabita and loved looking at her beautiful artwork. Don't forget to check out her blog and Facebook page. 
Have an awesome week ahead!!

P.S.- All the images are provided by Sabita and subject to copyright. Please don't copy without her permission.