It is Vishu, our new year’s day, on Sunday. So the last few days I’ve been all nostalgic about India and how we used to celebrate the festival back home. That’s when I realized I never showed you pics of our beautiful village in the southern most state of India, Kerala.
Surrounded by coconut trees and lush paddy fields our village (B’s birth place and where most of his family hails from) is set in rural Kozhikode district.
Right outside our home is a huge granite hill that was quarried out. All that is left are some lakes set in between rocks.
We always make it a point to visit this scenic hill and enjoy the sunset from there. This is the only large rock left over from the original hill.
My monkeys loved every minute of it. Here they are hiking up the hill and walking down a narrow path right by the edge of the rock.
They had a whale of a time skipping stones in the lakes below.
A view of the paddy fields next to our house in the morning mist,
The village is dotted with meandering paths like these. Those long skinny trees are areca nut or the betel nut
Monkey #1 even got to help grandpa pick peppercorns from the vines. The freshly picked peppercorns are green and turn black when they are sun dried. My son’s few hrs of hard work;
We are truly blessed to call this place home.
Where are y’all from? Is there a specific place that you like to go to in your home town?
More memoirs from our trip to India. I promise you I’m at the near end of my stash of India posts. Maybe two more then I’m done. We went to a 5 star resort called Kadavu in B’s home town, Kozhikode, for lunch. We ate at the multi cuisine restaurant, Oottupura. The food was ok but not worth the hefty 5 star price tag. However the ambiance and the beautiful setting on the banks of the Chaliyar River is worth a visit.
The architecture reflects the local style very well. As soon as you enter the lobby you are greeted by a trio of giant tiered traditional lamps. Disclaimer: All pics were taken with a ITouch. That day I had diligently taken the DSLR with us so that I could take great pics but forgot the battery at home! All we had was the ITouch which my daughter had (thankfully) sneaked in her purse.
A Kerala mural painting flanks a traditional charupadi window on the right side of the entrance.
On the left is a Mughal style balcony, the only thing that felt out of place architecture wise.
Wood lattice work frames the beautiful views outside the balcony;
The carvings on the side of the slanting roof;
The ceiling has terracotta tiles inlaid the traditional way on wood beams.
The landscape is dotted with lakes and pools surrounded by tropical trees.
I’ve heard rave reviews about the rooms and service from friends and family who have stayed there. They even offer traditional snake boat cruises on the river.
Anyone been there? What is your fav vacation spot?
The last few weeks I’ve been raving about Fort Kochi and all my antiquing finds. Today let me take you to the store where I found most of the stuff.
Kochi is the oldest Jewish settlement in India dating back to 70 AD. In the 16th century with the advent of more Jews the community flourished. There was even a Jew Town. Today most of the Jews have emigrated leaving only a few behind. The Jewish part has mostly shrunk to the Jew St, which is dominated by antique stores and spice traders.
I was jumping up and down squeezing the hell out of B’s hands in joy. Seriously, it was all mouth watering antiquing goodness. The pic below was taken from the middle of the store looking all the way to the back.
A lot of the pieces looked so old that I was scared to touch for fear of breaking them, like this Garuda statue.
Would have brought him home in a heartbeat if I could figure out a way to bring it on the plane in one piece.
What more could I ask for? A vintage tub filled with block prints!
By now I was totally behaving like a kid in a candy store, squealing, grabbing things of the shelves yelling, “Oh my God, I so….WANT this!” I was even gloating to B about how low maintenance I was. “You know, you don’t have to get me diamonds or expensive dresses or even flowers. You take me to a place like this and I would be the happiest person in the world!”
On the wall were more wooden plaque statues like the ones we got. We got ours at the store next door though.
You could see signs of the town’s Jewish heritage too.
My favorite thing in the store was this beautiful framed vintage poster. Love the bright colors and the simplicity of the design.
The only reasons that I didn’t get it were the price tag and the delicate nature of the glass frame. As you might’ve guessed, now I’m totally regretting not getting it!
What have you all been shopping for lately? Any antiquing trips/ thrift stores/ flea markets?
We are back to Kerala, my home state in India exploring my favorite home, of course, my parents’! You’ve seen glimpses of the home before (here, here, and here). This time around we are checking out the accents around the home that we might have missed earlier.
Before we start have to show you my amma’s (means mom in our language) WUHS inspiration project. A water garden teeming with guppies in her front yard.
Don’t you just love that blood red aquatic canna? Sadly she hasn’t had much luck with the lilies. I think it is the same plant (ranunculus aquatilis) that was in Mala’s garden that we’d showcased here.
On the porch you are greeted by hanging pots of ferns and a terracotta wind chime. I tell ya these chimes are huge in India. Every road side vendor worth his terracotta weight displays a mind boggling array of wind chimes.
On the living room table is a faux croc skin tray (from Ross for $15.99) with a traditional brass bell, some fake moss rocks (from Walmart, I think was $5.99), a glass bowl with colorful glass beads, and a pothos in a tea pot. Can you believe the tea pot was a gift from my parent’s wedding 36 yrs ago?
A collection of Buddha heads from Thailand and prints of paintings by the famous Indian artist Raja Ravi Varma keeps you company as you walk up the stairs.
More art, this time by the grand kids in IKEA frames adorn the other side of the stairway. You might recognize the white paisley frames from here. She plans to fill the entire wall with kids’ artwork.
I’m back! The last few weeks we were in India visiting family. We had loads of fun. The kids got some much needed grandparent bonding time. And for moi, lots of inspiration.
It has been a week now; we are slowly falling back into our schedule. To tell ya the truth getting back to writing has been the toughest thing so far! Seriously, the writing part of the blogging equation has always been the easiest for me. Now, the thought of actually writing regularly after a long break is daunting. I know, it is just a little starting trouble. There is no way I can not show you all the finds and sights from our trip and of course the big guest bedroom reveal and an update to my son’s room that I had all wrapped up before the break.
As I get back into my groove I (my writing) might sound a bit rusty. So please bear with me .
We found everything except for the mask, which was my sister’s gift from Venice (she and her family were holidaying in Europe over the break) while antiquing in Jew Street in Fort Kochi. Here’s another shot.
No worries, this is just a heads up post. I’ll do a detailed post on all of these sights/finds later.
Even though I’m from the area strangely enough I had never been to Fort Kochi, a famous historical center and port, before. The Chinese fishing nets (shore operated lift nets) along the backwaters are the trademarks of this enchanting place.
In Fort Kochi we also visited India’s first ever Biennale, a contemporary art exhibition.
Then there’s more shopping and decorating news and even some home tours.
And of course gotta share pics of our beautiful village in rural Kerala.
Can you believe this is right outside our place?
This used be a huge granite hill that was quarried out. Feel free to ignore my monkey #1 smirking away as he didn’t like me disturbing their skipping stones session.
All this and more in the coming days…. So stay tuned.
Hi, my name is Sue and I blog at Housekaboodle about houses like a cottage or bungalow, celebrity houses, TV & Movie houses, kitchens and more. I am excited to guest post here today for Vidya. If your reading this then you are a fan of What’s Ur Home Story like me. I am still thinking about the Chair Story 3-part posts she did (I need to figure out how to steal that chair when she’s not looking) and if you haven’t had the chance to read about it, I am highly recommending it today.
Carmel-by-the-Sea Cottages Home Tour
I wanted to share something special today for you and Carmel-by-the-Sea cottages seems made to order. It is a wonderful place in California with whimsical cottages and cobblestone streets. Carmel-by-the-Sea offers special “two hour guided tours through secret pathways, hidden courtyards, gardens, and enchanting fairytale cottages.” What a wonderful place to visit or live. Carmel-by-the-Sea has “historical homes of famous artists, writers and movie stars.”
There are houses and charming cottages aplenty there that may not be on the guided tours. So lets look at one for sale that I found and dream of cottages. The decorating inside this charming cottage has a lot of soft yellow tones that I like.
The color of the exterior is so pleasing and easy on the eyes and blends well with the landscaping and paver-brick drive and walkway.
Charming cottage walkway to the front door entrance. Let’s go inside.
High ceilings with a lot of light coming in and nice built-ins on either side of the fireplace.
Love how the table and chairs are nestled into the window seat that is filled with pillows. This is off the kitchen as seen in the below view.
An unusually shaped kitchen counter and cabinets that make good use of space.
How charming to have the lamps hanging over the sink.
Like the green wicker chairs. So far, every room is painted a similar tone of yellow. That makes it so easy to move accent pieces around the house to any room as you please.
Master bedroom. I notice some of the window treatments in other rooms have the same check valance pattern like the dining room as seen above and also the family room. Have you ever decorated your house like this.
Master bathroom with wonderful windows!
Another window seat. I read that and agree, there can never be too many window seats in a house. Darling ribbon painting above.
Backyard is professionally landscaped..I’ll take that! Same paver-bricks in the front of the house are on the backyard patio. I think the continuity inside and outside of this house is amazing and well done.
See what I mean about Carmel-by-the-Sea. It is simply a place of magic, like this dream come true pathway with full-grown ferns, hydrangeas, and charming wood bird houses.
This is a 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom, 1,787 square foot house that exemplifies the Carmel-by-the-Sea lifestyle. It lists for $1,795,000 which is pricey, but we all know that the real estate in California is high.
I hope you were inspired and enjoyed this Carmel-by-the-Sea house tour. Another Carmel cottage post I did you might enjoy is here where I talk more about Carmel-by-the-Sea.
We went to a 5 star resort called 
“You know, you don’t have to get me diamonds or expensive dresses or even flowers. You take me to a place like this and I would be the happiest person in the world!”
