You say tomato I say tomahto!

Am guest blogging over at Anu's blog today! If you've never visited her blog, do so NOW! And no, not because I posted there today :-)....but cos its chock full of fabulous recipes and food ideas!

My husband and I (more him than I) have been dabbling in some organic pesticide free hydroponic gardening for a few months now.....so Anu wanted me to write about it on her blog, and anyway that's a more appropriate place for the post anyway! So hurry on over to her blog....and read the post!

And while you're doing that let me try yet another recipe with tomatoes...(you'll know what I mean after reading the post)!!!

Happy cooking!

It's easy being green!

Green is the color associated with nature. It signifies life, freshness and harmonious living. When you use this color inside your home, you are essentially bringing nature indoors. Lime green tends to be invigorating and energetic, but more subtle shades of green can bring about a calming atmosphere to the rooms of the house.

The psychological effects of the color green are similar to those of the color blue; green is perceived as calming and reassuring. On a 'primitive' psychological level, the color green tells us that we are safe: In a fertile, water-rich environment, above freezing temperatures, there is enough to eat and we will survive. We can relax.

Green occupies more space in the spectrum visible to the human eye and is second only to blue as a favorite color. Green is the pervasive color in the natural world that is an ideal backdrop in interior design because we are so used to seeing it everywhere. The natural greens, from forest to lime, are seen as tranquil and refreshing, with a natural balance of cool and warm (blue and yellow) undertones. Green is considered the color of peace and ecology.

So feed your soul this summer with the look inspired by the color, texture and atmosphere of a sun-dappled forest. Bring the outdoors in, fill clear glass bottles with water and fill with plants for the home, scatter green pillows over the sofa, add a zing of green color to a room with accessories....get inspired!

Capture the forest mood  with accessories like green glass and grass embossed porcelain

Mosses, lichens, grasses and ferns....recreate the texture of the undergrowth with lush textiles and grain rich furniture!

Introduce organic shapes reminiscent of sculptural leaves or the fine lines of delicate foliage.

I am not a huge wallpaper fan....but this spring-leaf one, I could really learn to love!

One striking piece of green really adds pop!

Bring in textiles that pick up the graphic lines of bark and leaves and make a woodland impression!

Try a green/lemon souffle color for the walls and see the room come alive!

Images via Living Etc June 2010

Interior design in rural India!

"The soul of India lives in its villages"~ so said Mahatma Gandhi at the begining of the 20th centuy!

India is made of thousands of villages connected to one another by a dense and well travelled network of roads. More than anything the variations in the climate and geography have affected the highly individual architecture of India's rural dwellings. In Kutch for example, the houses are made of mud brick and cow dung, in the tropical south houses made from woven palm fronds offer shelter from frequent rainstorms as well as the hot sun! But no matter how humble these rural dwellings are, there is a shared pride, in which the mundane elements of everyday life - medicine bottles, tin cans, cooking utensils - are all proudly and artfully arranged to become essential components of a colorful and decorative environment! More than anything else, with the threat of global warming looming large and heavy, these homes are earth and environment friendly. While the rest of the educated world (myself included) is building homes in steel and cement and concrete, these simple folks use whatever local resource is available and cheap and eco friendly, to create some really beautifully simple homes. Interior design is not just about thousand plus square foot spaces and expensive materials; it is about good space planning and organisation and an effective synthesis of form and function; and to me these places are perfect examples of good design, maybe even more so, because they so effectively combine all these elements with a limited skill and on a limited budget!

A stone and mud house in Sonamarg, 11,500 ft above sea level, built using centuries old local traditions. The front room is enlivened by a vibrant blue green paint.

The kitchen with its low ceiling. The smoke blackened wood beams and the shelf are decorated with green dots

A stone and clay house in Leh. Alfalfa, dried and stored on the flat roof of the house, also provides insulation.

The immaculate kitchen where old brass and copper pots are displayed on shelves. Turned wood columns support the beamed ceiling. Wood or dung is burned in the cast iron stove decorated with brass openwork.

An organic shaped stone dwelling in Jaisalmer. The exterior is painted every year in orange and white. The interior is a multi colored collage of folk art and mementos

Family photos and religious images dispalyed behind glass and embedded in the plaster wall. How ingenious!!

The double niche in the kitchen includes a tiny window, a small brazier for cooking, ad a sparkling collection of polished brass vessels.

Bungas, or round huts, in the Kutch area of the Thar desert in Gujarat. the roofs are lined with plastic sheeting and thatched.

The traditional wall decorations were painted by craftsmen from the Wadha community.

On the inside of the roof, bamboo slats have been bound together and painted in a decorative geometric pattern. Below, dowry bedsheets are stacked on stools and concealed behind printed textiles. Painted tin trunks are used for storage.

A house of woven palm in Cochin, Kerela. A fence encloses the house.

Raligious objects on a small wooden shelf; below - cooking utemsils hang in the area for making meals.

A few miles from Jaisalmer, near the Pakistan border, in the village of Baramsar, is a strikingly decorated house. This is the local traditional decoration - distinctive white freehand designs on ochre colored walls.

A facade dispalying the flat, geometric, stylized design, often with bird and camel motifs.

The main room features a spectacular floor to ceiling array of shelves made from papier mache and clay. Both mundane and special objects are carefully grouped in separate niches and arranged around a deity in the central compartment.

Images via Indian Style by Suzanne Slesin and Stafford Cliff

Vasthukam Organic Architecture-Art or Architecture?

Given the serious threat that global warming poses to the world, green architecture is becoming more and more critical and important to us. In the US and European countries, almost all construction has to follow rules and codes that will make the buildings energy efficient and environmentally friendly. Even thought the concept is fast catching on in India, it is a long way behind the rest of the world. That is why I was so thrilled and impressed to come across an architectural company in Kerala, that is designing and building the most amazing structures out of an uncommon material that is inexpensive, plentiful, adaptable and most of all eco friendly AND beautiful - MUD!

Run by Mr. P.K.Sreenivasan, Vasthukam Organic Architecture is under the pursuit of bringing back the green earth! This is what he says -  "A building should be a biotic form. It should breathe life and exhale energy to the inmates who move around under the roof. It can be achieved only through sustainable construction solutions where a house becomes an inevitable part of nature and the people feel the splurge of nature both inside and outside. This intellectual pursuit takes us to the fusion of aesthetic sense, economic sense and common sense. There is a clear and vehement answer to those people who are still worried about the way they build houses. The answer is “Go back to the Nature and recapture the green we are losing day by day."

Mud is strong, smooth, tactile and sensuous. It is beautiful in its form: it adjusts to the weather and is extremely affordable. The surface treatments and finishes it allows for the interiors, gives architecture the opportunity to enter into the domain of art! Mud homes do exist in many parts of the country, but eschewing conventional methods, Mr. Sreenivasan developed a novel and refreshing mode of architecture. Using this he built "Anpu", his home. The 1900 sq ft house is built in the traditional Kerala "nalukettu" layout, with a central courtyard dominating the space.  While some flooring is composed of wooden planks retrieved from an abandoned house, the rest of the flooring is a made of a material made of hibiscus flowers, coconut shells, charcoal, kaajal and cement giving a smooth mirrored finish.
Take a look at these pictures and tell me if you don't find them simply amazing! You can almost feel the smoothness and the cooling comfort of the home. After seeing this home, why anyone would choose a material other than mud to build their homes, is a mystery!

Check out their website for some more mind blowing interiors and spaces!

Images courtesy September 2008 edition of Inside Outside!