India's time has come!

India is HOT! Yes, and I don't mean the temperature cos we're in the midst of a wet monsoon. But I mean hot in the design and decor industry. Everywhere you look you see India inspired linens, furniture, crafts, textiles. Finally our time has come and it couldn't be better.

Indian decor is diverse, beautiful and versatile, it lends itself well to almost any design style - modern, traditional, eclectic. For the past few days every furniture and home decor site I have visited has at least one item Indian. So I stuck them all in a "to share" folder and that's what I am doing today...sharing those with you.

  Tanjore finials - via

Hundred petal lotus vessels - via

Kantha chair - via

Carved wood coffee table - via

Charpoy coffee table/daybed - via

Mally Skok's India collection - via

Ikat cushions - via

Peacock napkin rings - via

Trellis dhurrie rug - via

Jhula inspired wooden hanging bed - via

Aren't they lovely? I just realized they are all in shades of blue and white.....! Enjoy!

Food for the eyes!

I am not a foodie by any means. I am more the "eat to live" kind of person as opposed to the "live to eat" type. My food tastes are simple, I am no Cordon Bleu chef.

But show me pics of food and I salivate over those. If I could survive just by looking at pictures of food, that would be good enough! So these pictures on Food Pixel's blog by Sydney photographer Dario Milano, had me drooling all over my keyboard....!

Not dishes muddled in sauces and gravies obscuring their inner beauty, but instead ingredients in their raw unadorned beauty, vegetables bursting with vitamin goodness, fruits glowing with health and vitality, spices oozing flavor and color.

Take a look....I can almost reach out and lick the maple syrup off those pancakes!!!

Can't you just taste the food? It looks that good! For more gastronomic goodness go visit their website. 

Giveaway time!

Yay! I love giveaways. Love giving them and receiving them and blogging about them. So who is giving away what and why?

Emreen of Liven Things Up is giving away some lovely cushion covers from Mish Mash design to celebrate her blog's first anniversary!

So hurry up, get over there and do what you have to. 

All the best! Happy Birthday to your blog Emreen and keep the lovely posts coming!

Craft tour by Matsya

You all have heard of Matsya, right? The brainchild of Neha Gandhi, Matsya is a labor of love, a a bridge between grassroots artisans and urban customers. 


Matsya curates a unique range of home furnishings, studio pottery and accessories, retailing these products online, at exhibitions and on a one-on-one basis, to individuals as well as corporate customers.

Their goal is to preserve, revive and expand the rich tradition of rural handicrafts by working closely with artisans, helping them develop quality products that appeal to contemporary tastes.

I can vouch for the gorgeousness of the products, because I have so many of them in my house. This post however, is to tell you about their craft tour Neha embarks on twice a year. 

Matsya has just released their craft tour book, a colorful insight into the life of the artisans and village people along with quirky narrative and lovely visuals.

If you want to lay your hands on it, email Neha at neha@matsyacrafts.com. I plan on not only getting the book, but also joining her on her next craft tour sometime in Oct/Nov. What an amazing experience that will be!


And why I am posting in orange? Cos blogger is acting silly and not allowing me to change the font color to black!!!!!

Bach - Adagio In C Minor

Not a huge fan of Greek God Yanni and his flowing hair, but this music composed by Bach and played by Yanni's orchestra, just kills me with its haunting beauty! 

The oboe solo at 1:35 brings tears to my eyes.....

Be sure to check out Vasudha's moodboard video on her blog. I had heard this music many times before but never knew what it was. And then I heard this music again on her blog....and she finally solved the mystery for me. 

Artist profiles - Lorenzo Duran and Karen O'leary

The great thing about art is that because it is so subjective and open to individual interpretations, it is a field that never remains stagnant, the boundaries are constantly being pushed and tried and tested. 


Two such artists who have done just that are Spanish artist Lorenzo Duran and American artist Karen O'leary. Their works are very similar in the amazing amount of time and detail that goes into them. So I thought I would club them into one single post!

LORENZO DURAN:

Some artists sculpt stone, others carve wood, but Lorenzo has decided to express his artistic talent by cutting tree leaves...yes, you read right...tree leaves. 

Inspired by the old paper-cutting techniques of Chinese and Japanese artists, he decided to try them out on leaves, and cuts his intricate models into real leaves, using a very sharp scalpel. He believes every natural object and living thing has a bit of art in it and is a good medium to experiment his creativity. Whenever he gets an idea for a motif he first puts it on paper, then places it over a leaf and uses the scalpel to cut.

 Duran has experimented a lot with cutting various types of leaves, and admits that most of his early works ended up in the trash, but he learned from his mistakes and developed a whole process of preparing leaves and cutting them so they don’t break as often. He has to pick just the right leaves (thicker ones are better), then come the washing, drying, pressing  and cutting. The last part is obviously the most delicate, because fragile leaves can break right at the end, and the artist loses days of work in an instant. Pretty frustrating, but nothing beats the feeling of fulfillment when he actually completes one of his cut-away artworks.

Yet another reason for me to love anything Spanish! 

KAREN O'LEARY:

Karen O'leary is definitely one of the most patient people on the planet. She spends most of her days cutting away at thick watercolor sheets of paper, until she creates jaw-dropping replicas of conventional city maps. The amount of time and patience she puts into every one of her works makes them unique masterpieces. For each one of her maps, she spends a great deal of time drawing it in detail first, and only then begins the painstaking process of cutting.

They may not be as helpful as conventional maps when you need to find your way around a metropolis, but the hand cut paper maps are simply stunning to look at.
Take a look:

Street map of London

 Street map of Montreal

 Street map of SFO

 Sydney street map

And then my favorite, Seattle. Here is an image of a conventional street map of Seattle..

and here is the same part of the city on a map created by Karen....

Quite amazing isn't it?

If you’d like to own one of Karen O’leary’s intricate hand-cut paper maps, you can find a wide range of cities, from Madrid to Sydney, at her online Etsy shop. While the $1,100 price tag may seem a bit discouraging, judging by the amount of effort Karen puts into her art, you’ll find it’s a bargain.

These are some DIY's I will NOT be attempting! 

Back on the blogging bandwagon

I feel like the Phoenix rising from the ashes. Only unlike the Phoenix I seem to be rising again and again.

I know, I've been gone while. It was meant to be a few days off from blogging but I realize now its been almost 3 weeks!!! Too many other things have been taking up my time. Now that the rains are here and summer is over we have been busy getting our organic veggie garden up and running. I've been tinkering around with DIY's, blogging for Saffron Marigold, cooking some new vegan dishes, watching Mad Men season 4 and so on.

And I must admit I did run into a blogging wall...not a brick wall, but a heavy steel reinforced concrete wall!!!! I could not for the life of me come up with interesting things to write about. Beautiful rooms, design ideas, cool store finds...all been there done that! I could not write a post without running the risk of someone else already having blogged about it. A year ago I had post ideas coming out of my ears and could not keep up...but now.....nada, zilch, nothing!!!!

But today, even though I run that risk of repeating something, I must feature designer Katie Leede. I think it was Bhavna of An Indian Summer who featured her a while back? I am not sure.

Katie creates lush, livable interiors that reflect their personal spirit and is known for her bold use of color and love of texture and beautiful textiles. She especially enjoys bringing a contemporary edge to traditional homes and a feeling of old-world comfort to more modern houses through the use of antiques, art, and great furniture. Her goal is to create magical places where time stands still and her clients love to be.

Here are some gorgeous interiors by her that are really inspiring me.

Its true what they say about your design style evolving as you grow older. I find nowadays I am getting drawn to more texture and layering in interiors, quite a change from the clean lined clutter free look I have been embracing all these years!

To see more of Katie Leeds, go here.