bring on the festivities...

It's that time of the year again. A certain festive anticipation takes hold of me.

Mr. Sun decides to illuminate certain corners with his geometrical rays. Love that fragrance of a season in transition. A season of festivals.

The festive season propels me towards adding that little extra which transforms the home and gets you ready for new events, happy changes and cheerful living!

As promised, sharing few joyful corners of our home...

Jai Hanuman!

Allamanda flower on his open palm...

My shiny silk cushion covers in bright colours & borders...

Mangalgiri borders give a traditional look...

Some tealights in a glazed glass holders...

Fresh fresh flowers in my copper tea kettle...

Bedside chest with a tower of books and flowers...

A Panjurli (Boar Mask) from Udupi...

Roses on my dressing table, kept in little bowls of water placed inside woven palm leaf basket...

Hope all of you enjoyed a virtual tour of few corners of our home.

Eid Mubarak & Happy Ganesh Chaturthi to all my readers! Have a great week!

(Images by Arch)

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Week 19 ~ Diamonds In The Rough!

Diamonds In The Rough! is my weekly feature, where I show you the treasures that I find from garage sales, thrift stores and antique stores.

We hit the Mother-load AGAIN this weekend. As I always find, at the beginning of garage sale season and towards the end of garage sale season, they tend to have better pickin's.


Solid Walnut display case, hubby was happy I found this, he drilled more

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Heritage Madurai.

Last week saw us visit the beautiful Meenakshi Temple in Madurai, devour traditionally prepared South Indian lunches served on banana leaves and get lost in a tropical haven created by Geoffery Bawa.

Heritage Madurai is a 17-acre resort originally called the Madurai Club and was designed by the famous Sri Lankan architect Geoffery Bawa. Bawa's style of blending indoor & outside spaces is evident through out the resort.

Locally sourced materials and natural elements makes this place very unique. Bawa's disciple Vinod Jayasinghe has restored this resort to it's former glory by blending tradition with modern luxuries.

Granite used liberally at the resort.

Intricately carved door at the reception area.

Reception area with antique wicker work chair.

Entrance lobby with fresh floating flowers in a granite urli.

Lotus leaves growing tall at the entrance area.

'Frangipani' trees framing the Luxury Villas.

Granite pillars and furniture at the Luxury Villas.

Our room.

Traditional wooden doors and granite formed the main design in the room.

Our very own plunge pool with Frangipani tree!

Do we really need to head back home?

Temple Tank inspired pool at dusk.

Dining area at dusk.

Geoffery Bawa~ I really adore your style. Madurai ~ I enjoyed your rich culture.

(Images by Arch)

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a festive, seasonal makeover at home...

coming soon. Stay tuned...

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Here a Tweak, There a Tweak ...

Many of you are familiar with the transformation of our fireplace/surround that took place a couple of years ago.  It went from this:

to THIS:

Well, a few days ago, I decided to add a couple of coats of Old White chalk paint to it for a subtle change:

I also lightly distressed it:

And then added a few swipes of Gold Leaf Rub 'n Buff to the center scrollie:

Annnnnnd, I decided to paint the slate surround a soft caramel:

Just a little fun tweaking!

While we're here, I have to give a little shout out to the cute PB pillow I added to the parsons chair:

Off in the background, you might notice that I tweaked another piece, as well:



This was once the bird piece that I painted AS Chateaux Grey:

I thought it was missing "something," so I taped a stencil I had to the center, painted it Old White and then added Gold Leaf Rub 'n Buff:

There, that's better:

Your turn to "tweak" something! 

Oh, and just lookie what I found today ... isn't it bee-you-teee-fulllll ?!  Fall is about to explode in blogland:

Thanks for stopping by,

Come play at:

Dittle Dattle/Amaze Me Monday

Savvy Southern Style/WUW

Common Ground/Vintage Inspiration Friday



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Repurposing My Wine Labels ...

Just a little non-descript project I thought I'd share.  When I opened our wine cooler the other day, I found that two identical wine labels had fallen off of their bottles due to being in there for so long (admittedly, we're not *big* wine drinkers).  As I was about to throw them away, I glanced over at a plain glass hurricane that I have on the kitchen island ... that's when the lightbulb went off ....

I grabbed my glue stick and applied the matching wine labels to the front and back of the hurricane. 

Realizing I needed a couple more labels, I pulled out two more matching bottles of wine that still had their labels attached.  I soaked the bottles in hot water and the labels floated right off!  I then applied them to the hurricane while they were still wet ... they stuck right to the glass, without the need for the glue stick.

I also tucked mini bunches of colored faux grapes around the base of my battery operated candle.

Now, it helps to complete the wine theme vignette I created (which sits on top of an oversized placemat from Pottery Barn), consisting of a glass apothecary jar filled with wine corks (with faux grapes nestled beside it), along with the scattered wine corks on the other side.

This will probably be my last *summer-y* vignette, as it's time to start thinking about Fall decor!

*   *   *

Moral of the story ... if you have a wine theme anywhere in your home, why not save your wine labels and add a little pizazz to your plain glass hurricanes!  I'm going to try this on a lamp shade, too!

Have a great day.

Come join the fun:

Chic on a Shoestring Budget/Flaunt it Friday
At the Picket Fence/Inspiration Friday
French Country Cottage/Feathered Nest Friday

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More Splashes of IKEA ...

Just thought I'd share another one of my IKEA finds!  As I've mentioned before, they have such great textiles at incredibly reasonable prices.  When I spied these stainless plant pots, I knew I had to have one ... okay, maybe three(!):

And, of course, I had to have something to put in them ... that's when three of these little cuties jumped on in my cart, too:

I added them to the bookcase in our sitting room. Here they are ... all lined up like little soldiers:

Enjoying the element it adds:

Annnnd, in other news, a large box finally arrived today ... let me just say that my jaw started hurting the minute I opened it, as I've clearly bitten off more than I can chew !!  I hope I get to show it to you within the next YEAR  ... O.M.G. !!

Have a great day,

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