DIY's For A Rainy Day

An Indian Summer's DIYs are in Grazia! 

The Makeover: Reclaimed Bottles

The Senior Features Writer at Grazia, Spardha Malik, reached out to me last month, to put together three easy and quick DIYs for Grazia readers. It was after a really really long time that I got my craft supplies out, and then scouted the home for things that could be reclaimed or up-cycled or re-purposed or generally beautified. Not only did I have to Do the It-Yourself's, but also style and photograph each step of the process. And what fun it was to do it all;  industrial strength glue sticking my fingers together notwithstanding! All the three DIYs can be easily done within ten to twenty minutes, and you don't really need any special supplies to make them.

The 2 Minute Cake Stand 

 I upcycled old glass bottles, made cake stands and prettied up a lamp :)

Baubles On A Wire: The Lamp Updo

Grab the June 2013 issue of Grazia India, for step by step instructions on all three DIYs. You can buy the online copy of the mag on zinio or magzter.

Click to Enlarge

Do tell me if you try any of these on a rainy day, or a non-rainy day :)

[All images: An Indian Summer]

Featured!

Femina

I am thrilled to be a part of the special Made By You issue of Femina this month! I was asked to contribute a feature on Interiors and Homes and, there I am, with the story on how the husband and I did up our home over the years. I shared with you the pics I had taken when the photoshoot happened; take a look now at a full visual tour of my home in the feature. :)

A big thanks to Anuradha, the Chief Copy Editor at Femina and Manpreet, the excellent photographer who did the photoshoot!

You can get a copy of this issue right here, and/or get it online on Zinio.

Hindustan Times Live Mint

And, my ideas on how to design and style transitional spaces were featured in HT Live Mint, last Saturday. I had superb company - Chandan and Rajee's design advice and examples from their homes were part of the article as well.

Thanks Komal for getting the three of us together on Live Mint :)

Take a look at the article online right here!

[All pics: Me]

One fine day in March

At An Indian Summer's home

  

On a beautiful spring day last week, there was a photoshoot at my home, for an iconic women magazine. It was a fun day and I had a great time styling the home and discussing angles and frames with the excellent photographer. When the team left, I took advantage of the late afternoon sunlight filtering in and took some pictures, just for you :)

Southern light in the entry foyer

The mellow bedroom

A corner in the living room, with marble urlis and madhubani painting

By the bedside

My boy cat finally finds the time to sit and relax after a hectic day of knocking off flower heads, pawing little knick knacks off the shelves, streaking across rooms to creatively (dis)place rugs and other such sundry activities. He ensured that I do, and redo, and then again do up a room, till the time he got bored of the room and sauntered away!


Will let you know when the magazine hits the stand next month folks! Do pick it up for more pictures from our home and a story feature on how I went about doing it up.


[All images taken by me. Kindly credit and link back to this post if you use them anywhere]
   

What time is it?

It's party time!

An Indian Summer 

My little bloggie blog

Turns 5 today!

It has been 5 long years

Since I have known you

And you have known me

And I don't tell you enough

But I do love you! :)

Thank you

For being there

For writing to me

For motivating me

For inspiring me each day

 

Thank you for being the fabulous readers and friends that you are!

XOXO

[Pics taken by me at home]

Checking in

Hello my favorite peeps! 

Hope the week has started on a bright note for you

I am taking a break this week

At one of my favorite places in the hills

I'll be back later in the week

With stories from the hills 

And of the creeks

Be good till then

Much love!

[Image: Via my husband's iphone]

 

In which I preen a little

The Bloggie boy here is going places, and is taking me along on the merry ride! This month has begun with features in two beloved magazines and I am chuffed! My home has been featured in Better Homes and Gardens (India), and I have also been interviewed by the Pool Magazine. Yay and Yo!

The photo shoot at home was so much fun; even though I think I had caught the blasted bug by then and was some what under the weather. I just generally hung around, eating the tidbits meant for the BHG team and cracking inane jokes, while they ran around and did all the hard work. A big thanks to the teams at these magazines for featuring me, and, a massive thank you hug to you guys for loving this blog so much!   
 

The home feature, folks. The magazine is out on the stands & you can buy it online here

 Many thanks to the fabulous Ragini Singh Joshi and the brilliant Anay Mann

The interview in Pool. You can also read it online here

Thanks to the lovely Shriya Nagi!

And, there have been a few mentions in other well known magazines, last year. I was lazy (and shy) to put them up when the features came out; but well, here they are now - my tiny moments of fame :) 

Thank you Good Homes team

Muchas gracias, Mamta Mody!

Many thanks to Kripa Krishnan 

Thank you, Vilasini Roy!

And, just in case you missed the regular eye candy in this post, here, my sight-for-sore-eyes of a tom cat, says hello to you!

"THIS is what you woke me up for? MY pictures, by the way, would have launched a thousand magazines. Just saying"


The grumpus puss and I now sign off
I shall see you again tomorrow with a fresh off-the-oven post!

[All images: Taken in a hurry, by yours truly, at home]

An Indian Summer & Lomograhy

What a fabulous start to this month! In a little box, I got my very own Diana F+ camera, courtesy Lomography India! Lomography India and An Indian Summer would collaborate on an independent project this month and next, where I would get to take pictures of, well, anything and everything! The helpful peeps over at Lomography India will help develop not only the photo rolls, but also my analog photography skills. You guys have seen me fiddle with digital photography on the blog often [here, here too and here as well as an example], and now, you shall see my experiments with this cute little camera too.

And, that's not all! I won't be the only one gallivanting with a new camera, folks! At the end of this project, An Indian Summer will host a fun contest for all it's readers, their friends and family, their grocer and baker, and other sundry folks they like, giving them a chance to win a Diana F+ of their own! Isn't that cool? I would really love for one of You to win this, and then, you and I can share our fancy tricks with the camera over glasses of chilled lemonade :) More on the contest will come later, so make sure to keep checking in!

[Image: Instagram-ed at home by moi. Contest Sponsor: Lomography India, Lomography India on Facebook]

 

I like you already..

 ..2012!

 {The warmth of tea-lights, on a cold cold winter day}

I hope, so far, this year has been treating you well too!

Here's wishing you, my lovelies, a wonderful rest of 2012!

I am in the midst of moving to a shiny new laptop and hence the absence of beauteous posts. As soon as I have moved, installed and cleaned up stuff from laptop till date to laptop from date, I'll be back with goodies that make you go Ah! Be good, till then. :)

 

 [Image: Taken by me at home]

She says Hello!

Para pa..

Come on join the joy ride

Join the joy ride!

[Roxette: Joy ride]

I am writing this post listening to the ipod playlist version of my 90's mix tape. Sorry for not dropping in last week...I was busy with a photo shoot at our home. And while the professional photographer set the stage with some very fancy equipment and angles and lighting, I pranced about taking shots of my own from my shiny little camera. I'll share more details about the shoot once the publication is out. In the meantime, kindly to make do with what my camera and I shot:  

And, what else is lined up for this week? A delicious post about a super talented young designer and an exciting contest! So do come back soon! And have a great week...now that the week has started, the weekend is just around the corner!

  

 

[All pics taken by me at home]

This week's trivia

It has been an exciting week for me. Not good exciting though. I crash landed in the hospital with a condition that apparently strikes in very young children and is rare in adults. And the complication that I had was even rarer (only one measly page of relevant google results). The good news is that the bad news is over. I am back home recuperating and thinking that it must have been my baby soft skin that mislead the 'condition' into gracing me with it's presence. Ahem. [And Mr. Blog, you can stop that sniggering right this very moment!]

I had planned for a bunch of showcases and a special gallery for the facebook gang this week. Alas, it was not meant to be. Instead, like any self respecting individual with a shiny new camera, I shall shove show pics from my last vacation to you. Oh, and some from my home too.

  As you can see, I have a strong predilection for shiny light thingamajig, commonly referred to as chandeliers

Hmm...who do I love more? Paris or Cats? 

And a few from my home...

I'll be back next week hopefully. All ya folks out there - have a healthy weekend. No falling sick with rare conditions, OK?

[All pics have been taken by me and are owned by me and Mr. Blog] 

Un Deux Trois...already!

 Hello again!

This is me

Me, the blog 

[Mr. Blog for the uninitiated]

Thanking you

For sharing the most incredible three years 

Of my journey through the world of design and interiors

Wish me

For I turn 3 today

And be with me

For many more years of this fun ride

Signing off: Mr. Blog

[also known by the fancy schmancy name - An Indian Summer]

[some pics from my home]

Happy Birthday!

An Indian Summer

 With love: Bhavna

The person who actually updates you, Mr. Blog

[And for the record, your name is not fancy schmancy. It's quite nice. Go ask any one!]

Happy Diwali!

Hello! How have you been?

I have been busy with Diwali festivities and a wedding in the family

Hope you all had an awesome Diwali

And celebrated the festival of lights

By lighting a diya or two

I will now catch up with you next week. Leaving you with some glimpses of the Diwali decor at home this year...

(all pics taken by me @ home)


[Blogger gave the option of posting extra large pics as I uploaded the pics, so trying that out. Let me know if it messes up the blog formatting/user interface for you...will get back to regular sized pics]

The day I welcomed Diwali, and You, to our home...

Never have I been such an enthu pataka ('enthusiastic cracker' for the uninitiated) about taking pictures on Diwali! But, I promised you, my beautiful friends and readers, that I will share images from my home, and I being quite the gentle(wo)man when it comes to 'published on net' promises, I did exactly that! And had a lot of fun in doing so too!


Let me re-live with you the beautiful day it was yesterday, when we celebrated Diwali....

Welcome...

Lord Ganesha (made of brass) presides in his niche, content with the offerings of marigold. The two brass bowls belong to my grand mom. The smaller one was used by my mom for her meals when she was a baby and hence holds a very special value for me

In anticipation...during the day:

Took out the brightest of colors...in this case, a red bed cover and cushions with gold block print. A recently acquired rug now proudly hangs above our bed. The corner chair in my bedroom is one of my favorite places in our home during winters..


Waiting to be lit up as the dusk falls. Marigold and Orchids. Bougainvillea petals from my garden

And 'this' also waits to be placed at the proper place! 'This' being some of the booty from my recent trip. Iron grill candle holder and various tableware from Boston (Crate and Barrel and Target primarily...I was pleasantly surprised by some of my finds at Target), and Mr. I.M. Aboy magnet from Camden. The mirrors are from Ikea (from an earlier trip) that I got polished to this shade of wood to match the rest of our woodwork

And as dusk falls, the festivities begin:

Three different kinds of lights welcome you to our home! First one is a Bastar iron candle stand, and then we have.. who else but the mighty elephant taking on the load of diyas, and finally, a flaming mashaal (torch) right at my doorstep


And as you step in: a deep pink lantern; cut work diyas in a row; and my latest obsession - hammered brass urn with pink and yellow dried leaf lotuses - all greet you with open arms!

And not to be left behind, some other nooks from my home adorned with tea lights and cane lamp. The silver chowki (small stool on which the tea light stand is kept) was used for some purpose at my wedding (don't remember what purpose!)

But who gave the permission to light up all this fancy stuff? Well, everything was lighted only after we did a small puja (religious ceremony) in front of Lakshmiji (Goddess of wealth) and Ganeshji (God of everything good and auspicious). The figurines on the left are made of terracotta, as is the small house known as 'hatri'. A new set is bought each Diwali...
(And Constance, I lighted a candle for you while we prayed...)

And, finally, we wrap up another Diwali...

Still warm but now vacant chair after family and friends left; solitary lantern providing some warmth to the black cushion; 'not-wanting-to-be-left-out-even-though-I-am-regular-and-not-related-to-Diwali-decor' lamp (my favorite one!); and the metal candle lady (whose head was cut off by the mosaic maker!) looking at the other black cushion push the pink cushion off the couch when it thought no one was looking...

Some afterglow of solitary votive; two (oh %^&*! I have forgotten a word again...what do you call this flower?!!)...well, anyway, the two flowers dozing off on my kitchen counter; brave bastar camel guarding the only two books on my newly built additional book shelf and orchids playing the last game of peek-a-boo with the stairs..

Thank you for visiting me on Diwali...you made this beautiful festival even more special for me this year :-)

P.S: All terracotta diyas and other terracotta items were bought from The Blind Relief Association at N.Delhi, where each year, visually challenged children make these products, while pursuing their education. I strongly recommend (specially if you are in Delhi, or are visiting) to help this non-profit institute by buying at least something made by these children. I can assure you that you will not be disappointed when you visit their workshop. :-)