Thursday 4 March 2010

art at home, charcoal sketch, Priya Sebastian

Finally...

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Priya Sebastian's 'After a shampoo' charcoal self-portrait adorns one of the orange walls at home!

You can see more of her amazing work here, her beautiful home here and visit her at 'The Plum Tree'

Friday 26 February 2010

Matsya. Indian art and crafts

Matsya

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I am a big lover of Indian art & crafts and when I came across Matsya, I was completely amazed by the lovely products created by artisans from various parts of India.

Jat Embroidery pouches.

Matsya~ Is a venture started by Neha Gandhi, an artist, potter & a craft lover. Neha studied at Sir. J.J School of Art, Mumbai and then went on to learn studio pottery in Golden Bridge Pottery, Pondicherry. Her love for the rich art & crafts of India took her to Maharashtra & Gujarat where she used her creativity to work closely with various artisans.

Matsya is a platform through which Neha wants to create awareness about artisans' life, their culture and age old traditions by featuring the artisans stories about their skills, time and creativity they invest into the craft. Also how our purchasing choices directly impact the livelihoods of thousands artisans and the survival of generations old traditions.

Stunning hand embroidery.

Neha says,"Our goal is to showcase the natural beauty and workmanship in Indian arts and craft by presenting them in contemporary style and form. By doing so, we offer original art that all of us can relate to. They serve as a reminder of our roots, to everything that we have been and therefore are even now."

Hand painted local terracotta pottery.

Here is a collection of some of the many art & crafts at Matsya

Beautiful wooden lacquer craft ladles.

Intricate embroidery by artisans from Kutch.

Leather pouches.

Patchwork Quilts

Block print bags

Jain Keri design on contemporary cushions.

Ceramic Urli.

Hand painted Coffee Mugs

Handcrafted Coffee Mugs & Madhubani coasters.

Jain Art on a pen stand.

In addition to displaying innovative uses and designs of traditional crafts at Matsya, They retail & take corporate orders of an assorted variety of stunning products.

You can get in touch with them at matsya.crafts@gmail.com or become a fan of Matsya Crafts on Facebook to get updates on their various products & events.

(images by Neha Gandhi)

The Heart of our Home ...

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I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend !! And, while I'm sure most of you are tired of hearing the word "snow," we were *snow* excited (har har) to have a tease of it here in Myrtle Beach this past Saturday. Jax loved playing in it ... building his first snowman and making his first snow angel.

Well, come on inside for a cup o' hot chocolate or hot tottie while you take a peek in our kitchen. It's truly my favorite room in the house ... where I wish I was constantly whipping up award-winning meals. Sadly, the only thing I tend to *whip up* in here is chaos ... constantly changing things around !! Decorated in a french/wine/bistro theme, we really do enjoy the open flow of this room:

We've also enjoyed adding a few custom touches.

BEFORE: laminate countertops covered every surface (including the island, which I don't have a before pic of). First, we added Black Galaxy granite to the island:

THEN: Here's the island with added face panels and a coupla coats of SW Antique White ... eventually I'm going to *attempt* to add a brown glaze, and I'd love to add some sort of stencil or embelishment on the side panels. Also, the parameter countertops are now fancied up with Golden Beach granite.

BEFORE: plain ol' backsplash:

AFTER: Neutral tiles and a decorative border now fill the space:

As for the pantry door ... I attempted to give it a little personality by adding a chalkboard to the upper half (had the burch wood cut at Lowe's ... rolled on some black chalkboard paint and added molding). (And, oops, clearly it's time to wipe away the snowflake wishes!)

Annnnnd, of course, I've *futzed* around with the accent table in the breakfast area ... can you spot the little fellas I picked up the other day?

Here's a closer look at them. Ahhhhh ... bunnies ... aren't they cute ?! And, now that we got to enjoy a little bit of snow, these ceramic furries have been instructed to hear of no more winter; see no more winter; and speak of no more winter !! Bring.on.Spring !!

Thanks so much for stopping by !!

I'm linking up with:

Metamorphosis Monday at BNOTP

Make Your Monday at Twice Remembered

Made it Monday at The Persimmon Perch

Make it for Monday at Cottage Instincts

Making the World Cuter Monday

Toot Your Horn Tuesday at A Silly Little Sparrow

Make it Yours Day at My Backyard Eden

SYS Thursday at Somewhat Simple

Thursday 11 February 2010

Bulb Plant Holder, diyas

DIY~ Bulb Plant Holders

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Rang Decor reader, photographer and home decor lover~ Meena Sriram from Ottawa, Canada shares with us a simple but beautiful do-it yourself, Bulb Plant Holder.

Meena narrates, "To be honest, I found this bulb in a small but very quaint store called Laras, downtown Ottawa. I picked one up from the store, later tried making many, got my apartment superintendent to help clean out the bulbs, its not something that you can easily do with a kitchen knife (err..realised that after some very painful tries)

Once the inside of the bulb is cleaned out, the rest is fun and easy, decorating it with African beads and shells and anything else that strikes your fancy!"

The bulb plant holder enhancing the beauty of a corner...

Bulb Plant Holder decorated with African beads...

Now, that is something I would definitely try out:-) The bulb plant holders can add a magical touch to any corner of you home.

Do give it a try!

( images by Meena Sriram)

Monkeys, palm trees and dirty laundry ... oh my !!

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Welcome to our mudroom, where you'll find yourselves surrounded by a bunch of monkeys !! Nooo, not John, Jax and me, silly, but our walls !! Okay, so YES, I do have one other room decked out in wallpaper. When I first spotted the fun paper in my hairstylist's studio, I LOVED it ... had to have it ... didn't know where I was going to put it, mind you, but I HAD to have it !! We decided on the mudroom because I thought this was someplace unexpected for a fun paper such as this.

BEFORE: I took this picture of our mudroom the day after we moved in ... basic white ... wire shelf ... no storage, etc. It was politely screaming for us to give it a little personality. So, that's what we did (or attempted to do, anyway). As always, feel free to click on pics to enlarge them.

AFTER: Welcome to the jungle !! Are your eyes going crazy from all of the monkeys and palms? Well, not only did we add the paper, but we added crown molding, maple upper cabinets and a double base cabinet. I painted the ceiling SW Blonde, and we replaced the light fixture (oops, sorry you can't see it). I can't tell you how much I love having the extra storage !!

I recently scored this fun wall clock from Kirkland's:

We found this great mirror w/ hooks at Lowe's. And, the storage bench's former home was, once again, Kirkland's. I'm sure it appreciates us throwing our stinky "go to" shoes in there !!

Finally, I recently turned this little area into our "command center." (I'll give you one guess where the precious monkey lamp came from!). Thankfully, we saved the countertop that used to be on our kitchen island ... our contractors were able to cut it down and use it here !! I love that the wide drawer below (seen in other picture) serves as our "neat" junk drawer, filled with pads, pens, small "fix it" items, etc. And, Jax loves calling one of the base cabinets "his," by storing his coloring books, crayons, stickers, etc. there. Um, did I already mention how much I LOVE the extra storage !!

So, there ya' have it. Now, I'd love your honest opinions here ... it's been 3 years since we added this wallpaper. And, well, you can imagine that I'm getting the itch to redo the walls. When I look back at the "before" pic, I somewhat miss the light color ... how the washer and dryer blend into the wall, instead of popping out and screaming at you against the red walls. So ... my wonderful blogging friends ... what do you think? Paint it back to a lighter color or keep it as is?

Thanks for stopping by,