Organising recipes

If the receipes are scattered in different areas in your home, looking for the required recipe will consume time. Organised recipes leave you with peace of mind and saves your time. So we will look at preparing a recipe album..

Gather all the recipes. They include those from magazines, newspapers, receipes on television and from friends noted by you in paper, prints from websites. Once you have all the recipes sort them. Sorting may be on the basis of region of origin like North Indian, Chinese, Mexican, Western, OR on the basis of preparation like frying, baking, boiling, refrigerating (as in the case of ice creams), OR on the basis of type of food like snacks, beverages, side dishes, starters, sweets, hots etc.

Take an album and put your collection depending on the type of classification. If there are many recipes in each category you can assign an album for each category and give the name for each album. You can also opt for printing the names as you can choose the font you desire and it will be neat. Another way is using different colour albums. You leave some pages for each type of recipe as it will help you in adding recipes in future.


Gift yourself with recipe album which keeps you prepared for any occasion in no time.

Enhance the look under the stairs

How to make the space under stairs look lively? Is this the thing you bother about? Then, here is a solution. If you add your imagination, this a wonderful idea for the idle space. Read on.

Arrange a mirror all along the wall under the stairs. With the help of electrician add lights under the stairs to illuminate the area. Mark a square or rectangle on the floor below the stairs of the size you desire. Chalk out an 'S' shape within in the marked area. This shape 'S' is planned for creating small pool. With the help of your mason create a pool in the said shape. Fill the left over area with sand. Place pebbles, shells on the sand such that the sand is not visible. Leave some spaces unattended inorder to bring a look of greenary. Add green velvet cloth in patches at desired places in the left over rectangle or square. Take an iron wire paint it green. Let it dry. Fold it in the form of a bush. Make some bushes and place them in places you desire.

Now its time to decorate with figurines of mushrooms, butterflies, frogs, tortoises, rabbits. Don't be hasty. Be careful in choosing the colours of figurines and their sizes. All their sizes must be relative to the size of the pond. The colours should harmonise well with each other and also with that of the pond. Place figurines of mushrooms in orange, red, pink and white on the green cloth. Arrange some tortoise figurines in the pond and a few on the pebbles and the green cloth. Add figurines of frogs in various poses and sizes at eye catching areas. Put those yellow ducks along with their babies in the water. Add colourful butterflies to the bushes surrounding the pond. Place some fresh flowers like roses, chrysanthemums in the pond. Snails in colours that give feast to the eyes also have their place. Finally don't let the dragonfly fly away from your lovely pond.

Love it. Live it.

Green Homes

Many may wonder how to go green in home designing and decorating. Let us know how to....

Eco friendly homes mean using less energy, less water, non VOC or less VOC, less non renewable resources in construction, design and decoration. There are many activities carried out in designing and finally decorating our homes. They are like....cleaning, decluttering, organising, painting, laying the floor, furnishing, lighting, so on and so forth. While carrying these activities we can hold on to our motto of reducing our carbon foot print. This is how we can....

1. Using natural fabrics in the place of artificial ones
2. Going for flooring made out of cork, linoleum, bamboo, etc.
3. Using jute, recycled products in decorating
4. Going for a second hand furniture or that of cane.
5. Growing organic garden and refusing plastic flower pots.
6. Using paints made of non volatile organic compounds
7. Using compact flourescent bulbs or rather going for natural lighting.
8. Purchasing products, whether they are paints, furniture, flower pots, cleaning agents etc., only from local shopping malls, markets.
9. Using natural cleaning agents in the place of chemicals.
10. Saving energy while using electronic gadgets and using solar energy. .
11. Saving water applying different ideas.
12. Reducing pollution inside the home.

These ideal practices for homes also help in leading a hygenic life style.

Any other tips, advices, suggetions and ideas can be shared by posting under comments which help us in updating our knowledge on eco friendly habits.

Retain that green hue on Nature's palatte

We all are aware of the alarming sounds on the disappearence of green and the measures taken up by various governmental and non-governmental organisations throughout the world for conserving it. SAVE (Society for Awareness and Vision on Environment) is one such non-governmental organisation from Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India, contributing in its own way for creating an eco-friendly society. This organisation is sketched in 2006 by artist Mr. Vijay Ram who owns a sweet shop at the well known green Indira Park, Near Tank Bund, Hyderabad. He felt that, as a responsible man he has to do his best for mother earth, and as a man of action.... he distributed eco-friendly baskets to people who carried pooja articles in polythene bags, donated for surgeries for cows which ate polythene bags, distributed clay Ganesha idols, 2000 in number, during the festival. These are only a few to mention. Articles are published relating to his activities in 'The Hindu' daily. SAVE has a website. There is a link under the head 'Save Mother Earth' in this blog.

I feel it is my responsibility in retaining the green hue on Nature's palatte. I will be posting on how to go green in home designing and decorating from next post. Hope they will be useful to you. Let us cultivate habits and extend helping hand to lead a green mode of life.

Turn your bathroom into a spacious one

Are you planning a bathroom in little space and want it to look spacious? Are you renovating a bathroom because you want more space? You have a small bathroom, want it look spacious and don't have any space to add to it. Still you desire to enlarge it.... OR You want to add space to your bathroom with little expenses.... Here are few ideas and tips to make your bathroom look spacious in inexpensive ways.

If you are planning a bathroom then opt for tiles in pale, soft colours. They make your bathroom look larger. If, "I have a bathroom which already has tiles and the colours are bright" is your answer, then you can easily and inexpensively bring in change by adding a border. For this, choose tiles in pale, soft colours with a pattern. Add them as border to your existing tiles. Be cautious about choosing the width of the border as it decides the ugliness or beauty of your bathroom. If you want to add colour to this pale bathroom, here is a tip. Prefer your bathroom towels, soap box and other accessories to be in hues of your tastes.

Gone are the days using shower curtains or frosted shower enclosures. The trend now is glass shower enclosures. Using glass you have two advantages. It is contemporary and they are helpful in creating illusion of space. Lighting is another aspect in determining the space. More light, more spacious it looks. We have two types of lighting. Natural and artificial. It will be economical to depend on natural light than on the later. To bring in natural light add a sky light or window to your bathroom depending on your convenience. Add artificial light to your bathroom by arranging ambient lighting on your bathroom ceiling and task lighting above the sink. Mirrors also increase lighting and add an illusion of space when arranged properly. Add a mirror above your sink and mount another on the opposite wall. The images give an illusion of space and the light reflected works its own magic.

Another idea to add space is to create a crown holding. If it is not affordable then go for a lattice. You need not add a lattice but paint it along the edge of the wall touching the bathroom's ceiling. Again be cautious about the width of the lattice. Hope these ideas lived up to your expectations for an illusion of space in your bathroom. Any other ideas are welcome in improving the content. Thank you for spending your time.

Fancify your flower pots

Plants. These are one of the accessories in prettyfying our home whether it is interior or exterior. It is a common practice to grow plants in flower pots, in gardens, pathways, balconies, inside the house or at entrances. Do you know that even the pots can be decorated in as many ways as the plants are used to grace our home? Let us look at some tips in fancifying the flower pots.

1. Using paints: Paint the flower pots using colours of your choice. Or take three used handwash bottles, pour three different paints mixed with required amount of turpentine and spray at different points on the pot. You have a design in various hues with less effort.

2. Using lace: If you have laces in various designs and don't know how to make best use of them, then whynot try this idea. Tie back it around the upper edge of the flower pot. Same idea can be implemented for old saree's borders.

3. Use mirrors, beads: You can buy dot-like miirrors and beads in crafts shops or fancy stores and embellish them on your flower pot in various patterns using glue.

4. Using newspapers: To show your uniqueness in decorating try using newspapers. Take some old newspapers cut them out to the size of your flowerpot and stick it with glue. You can use used up gift wrapping covers as well.

5. Using ribbons: In a house with girl child you may have old, used ribbons. These can be used to tie around the flower pots one below the other, in various colours, giving them eye pleasing look. The same idea can be implemented with plastic ropes, gift wrapping ribbons, etc

Hobby - Second Part

In the last post I was discussing about hobbies. Other than collections, hobbies, vary in types. Art, games, travel, pet care, gardening, walking are some hobbies which vary in concept. These hobbies also contribute in their own way to decorate your home. Walking is that hobby which helps to improve our health. While on a walk in your locality, if you come across some peculiar plant you may bring and nurture it in your garden. Even you can capture image of colourful Vinayaka idols in different postures, during Vinayaka Chavithi, in your neighbourhood with your camera and decorate it on your blank wall.

When taken art, we have rangoli which our ancestors have given as a traditional treasure. A rangoli infront of the door looks inviting, gives feast to our eyes. Even painting the front doorstep with red dots on a yellow background is also one traditional art thats part of our culture. Decorating the front door with mango leaves or a chain of door hangings is one such art we inherited from our ancestors. Just for front door we have many decorating tips that we subconsciously do. Consider travel, when we go seeing places, it is a welcoming hobby to bring home miniatures of monuments, eminent persons, symbols, etc. They help in memorising our travel and also bring life to our lifeless cupboards.

Tidying up and organising one's home is also such a hobby that's given priority in decorating the interiors. Organise photos in your albums if you have volumes scattered in your desks or shelves. Sort CDs and books and place them in respective places. Remove any unwanted, broken, torn articles and throw them into trash or donate to non-profit organisations. Once you have a clean home you will feel the difference.

Hope you enjoyed reading this.
Any suggestions, advices, ideas are invited in improving the content.

HOBBY!!!

HOBBY!!! Everyone of us have one hobby or more. We cultivate it to spend our leisure time effectively. They relieve us from stress, give pleasure and sometimes can be an investment as in the case of coin collection.

Hobby also plays a role in decorating our homes. Collecting stamps, coins, matchboxes, hats are some common hobbies we all know. If these are displayed in respective display vouchers, shelves in cupboards they bring in an attractive look for your room and also helps in reflecting your personal tastes. These hobbies can even be extended to collecting perfume bottles, cigar pipes, seashells, masks, newspapers, books, table lamps, flowervases, antiques so on and so forth. It has limit where your imagination ends.

The collections need not be displayed at a particular place, they can be placed at different corners of the room taking into account texture, size, shape, colour of the object and the function of the room, lighting, other accessories in the room. For example seashells can be displaced by placing them in a coloured glass bowl in a bedroom, if a shell is bigger in size it can be used as a paper weight for the newspaper on the centre table in your living room or a collection can be used in the aquarium with a set of pebbles. They can even be used to decorate candle lit areas and also infront of photos in frames.

Here are some websites which may be useful for those who want to cultivate a hobby and also for those who are experts in a particular one.

• http://www.seashells.com/
• http://www.prettypatrol.com/
• http://www.tiffanylampshowcase.com/
• http://www.bestscentedcandles.info/
• http://www.marega.it/

Let us enjoy cultivating a hobby and get satisfied watching our collection(s). More on hobbies in my next post. Don't forget to leave a feedback. Thank you.

Decorating your dining room

Confused about what colour to choose for the dining room? Bored seeing the same arrangement in your dining room.... Here is the answer. Dining rooms should be comfortable and inviting. So, the colours of the walls, chairs, dining table, cutlery, mats play a major role in your dining area. Choose colours like red, rosy taupe, orange for your dining area which increase your appetite. Dining rooms are of two types. Formal and Informal. More often, formal dining areas are in separate room whereas informal dining areas are attached to kitchen or living room or family room.

If the dining area is a formal one you go for colours from red to yellow, if it is an informal one then choose the above colours mixed with white or grey or black taking into account the colour of your living room or kitchen. For example if your living room is pink(a mixture of red and white) you go for either maroon(mixture of red and black) or plum(mixture of red and grey) so that the colours harmonise well with each other.

If you have a dining area which is already painted and you are not interested to change its colour as it is expensive or simply because you like the colour but some how want to add colours to increase your appetite, here is an idea. Change your dining accessories such as table mats, coasters, table cloth, buy some new cutlery with a design in above colours, or simply use a fruit bowl with apples, oranges, strawberries in it. You can also change the arrangement on the dining table by using candle holders in different shapes and sizes or just going for candles in red, golden honey beige, yellow or orange colours. A bunch of fresh red roses or tulips in a flower vase is also a good idea.

Finally, a dimmer switch for the light at your dining table to adjust the lighting to the required level for the occasion is a best option. Try these tips, feel the change and enjoy your dining time.
BON APPETITE.

Ideas for the home

When thought of decorating pieces in rooms, we generally end up with pictures, photo frames hanging from the wall, flower vase, a collection of personal taste etc., but pay less attention to plants. So, try adding a plant to the interior,which not only acts as decorative piece, but also cleans up the air.

CHAMAEDOREA PALM is one such plant to decorate your home, which adds an elegant look to the old or new home. Its a tropical plant and needs indirect sun light, hence a good choice for the interior. It is bright medium green colour and adds pleasantness to the eye. Its a must have plant in apartments, where green is out of reach.

...WELCOME...

Hi,

I am Roopa, studying Diploma in Interior Design from Institute of Interior Design, London.

I am very keen to give tips and suggestions to make your home spacious, comfortable and colorful.

My hobbies are Painting, Quizzing and coin collection.I also would like to share some websites on varied topics, which may be useful to you.

Any suggestions/advices/opinions on topics of creative thinking are welcome.Please do share this blog with your friends& relatives.

You can contact me by email: roopa.vuchi@gmail.com



Best Regards,
Roopa