Colorful ideas for Entertaining all year long

The Holiday season is nearing and you guys must be so excited about the prospect of receiving gifts and shopping for the perfect presents.

This year, I am focussing more on the entertaining aspect. I was looking around for some table-setting ideas and came across quite a few interesting images as attached below:

#1 Starting off with my favorite home store: ZARA HOME

Ethnic Table Set-up from Zara Home. Who said you need to match everything?

I love the use of different colors for the wine glasses and the dinner plates.

Simple Country Table setting from Zara Home. Clean and Neutral. Love the transparent dining chairs.

All White Table Setup from Zara Home. This might not look too festive, but I like the elegant & sophisticated look of this setting. Perfect for a small cozy dinner party with your friends and family.

#2 Moving on to Table settings by Rebecca Thuss

A special spotlight: Rebecca Thuss worked for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia for 10 years. She was a Style Director of Martha Stewart Weddings magazine when she received many awards for her outstanding eye for style and creativity. Rebecca is now part of ThusFarrell, a multidisciplinary photography and graphic design firm that she founded with her husband. For more info, Click HERE

I totally adore her table settings. Here are some:

#3 Misc:

Blue and White Table setting by Carolyne Roehm

From House Beautiful

Purple is "in" this year. Love the dark purple red collection here.

#4 nuevo-estilo - My another fav magazine from Spain.

Entertain throughout the year:

These table set ups are mucho cute? so atractivo :)

What do you think? Which one do you like the best?

Happy Diwali

People all over the world celebrate various festivities throughout the year. For me, Diwali is the funnest of all. Diwali was celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains all over the world today. Diwali means 'rows of lighted lamps', and the celebration is often referred to as the Festival of Lights

I miss being in India especially during this time. I miss bursting fire crackers on the streets, taking part in the festive celebrations, exchanging sweets with the neighbors, decorating and lighting the house with "diyas" (candles) and just simply spending time with the family cracking jokes and having fun.

Happy Diwali Everyone.

P.S: The above pic is taken from my small celebration at home here in NYC, Nothing fancy :)

Guggenheim's Design It Shelter Competition

Happy Weekend you guys. I have been away from the blogosphere for a while now & I am sure I must have missed out on all the upcoming trends in the design world. How do you guys keep up with your work, family, activities, school and blogging?? Kudos to you all for being so focussed and efficient.

Today's post is about my submission to the Guggenheim's Design It Shelter Competition.

Most of you must have known about the competition, and for the readers who don't , sometime back in June, Guggenheim and Google kicked off the "Design It Shelter" competition.

"a global competition that will challenge users to design a simple shelter in 3D with Google SketchUp, give it a geographic location using Google Earth, and share it by uploading to the Google 3D Warehouse." --google press

Although my submission was disqualified due to the image size, I felt it was a great experience. I also learnt a lesson: stop being a last minuter :) I submitted my entry at 5.00PM (the closing time on the last day of the submission) in a hurry without realizing that the image size was way too big. Also I pretty much didn't know how to use sketch-up and completed my model in less than 3 days time. I knew I wasn't going to win this competition due to my lack of knowledge & experience, but still wanted to take part and be a part of the design community.

Sketch-up is a great tool. You can do so many things three dimensionally, and it is completely free. If you have never tried using sketch-up, give it a shot.

I designed a shelter (interior space: 10' X 10') for a female highest ranking karateka who is undergoing a vigorous training to be the next grand master. The location I chose was near Bali, Indonesia.

Here are my images:

Back View of the Shelter

Side View

Front View

Interior

I used natural materials such as bamboos & wooden flooring in a natural setting. Inspired by Japanese designs, I used shoji screens and low-lying furniture.

What do you guys think? Do you like/dislike my concept and implementation?

Public voting is now open and please cast your vote for the best shelter It model HERE

My friend, Kathy took these photographs at an Upstate New York Retreat Center. I wanted to share them with you guys. Happy weekend and Enjoy.

I love this pic. So tranquil and serene.

The post lamp outside an accommodation looks lovely.

Another lighting fixture - An indoor hanging sconce.

I am not really sure what this is, but I love the metallic basket. It could be used as a side table.

Don't you think so?

A hindu goddess. Love the magnificent craftsmanship.

Pretty stained glass birds.

And finally, I love this pic a lot. The green and red on top of that white plate setting looks gorgeous.

Thanks Kathy for taking these wonderful photographs :)

Happy Weekend.

Have a great weekend guys.

This Speranza lounge chair from Inmod is really cool & is on sale for $211.00

BazaarTwits

Hey guys,
I have been so busy the last couple of months working with my husband in launching Bazaartwits.
Please check out http://bazaartwits.com
It is a twitter based web site that lets you post, share, search and tweet deals. Do let us know how we can improve, as we would love to hear your feedback.

Spread the word peeps.

Thanks.

Magnetic storage solutions

Do you rent an apartment? Does your landlord restrict you from drilling anything into the walls? Do you have a tiny space? If yes, I can totally understand your frustration.
Storage and Organization can be a big hurdle in small spaces.
Have you ever thought about getting Magnetic products?

check out some perfect magnetic storage solutions:

q-man magnet from CB2




Don't you love this cute guy? The bright orange adds a fun look as well. You can buy more than one and attach them together in different forms. Use it as a hook or for holding objects in the refrigerator.

Price: $9.99

Products from The Container Store


Magnetic mesh bins for $6.99




Mini spot on Magnetic Hooks for $9.99


Products from Organize-it-Online.com

York Magnetic Clips for $6.99


Bendini Flexible Magnetic Organizer for $6.99

Magnetic Stainless Towel Bar for $15.99