Whats Ur Home Story

Craigslist Treasures

March 31, 2014 By Vidya Sukumaran 4 Comments

One thing I've missed when I cut down the number of weekly posts from 5 to 3 is my series posts, especially my two favorites, the Scouting Craigslist and the Same Look 4 Less. Like most women in the world I too can spend every minute of every day shopping or even window shopping. Just looking at things with the intention of buying (note I said intention only without specifying any time frame; could be next week, month, or even many years down the line) is enough to give me a sense of happiness. Those posts not only gave me the simple pleasure of window shopping for deals or things that I could DIY to look like a high end decorative piece but also the joy of sharing my findings with y'all. I mean who doesn't love a good deal? So when I was browsing through our local Craigslist and found … [Read more...]

DIY Laundry Room Sign

March 27, 2014 By Vidya Sukumaran 4 Comments

Today let's take a break from the Spring Home Tour shindig and switch gears to the laundry room makeover. After the initial jolt of enthusiasm to get the ceiling and light fixture ready in time for the East Coast Creative contest, things have cooled down a bit. Frankly the rest of the room is moving at snail's pace as I'm getting pulled into a million other directions on the personal front. The plan is to get going on it over the weekend and have the reveal for you next week. Till then here's a small update from the room, a DIY laundry room sign that I made from a thrift store frame. Wondering why I have a "Lost and Found" sign in my laundry room? Believe it or not we keep losing things in the washer/ dryer! Of course everyone loses socks but around here we specialize in DS games, … [Read more...]

Sharpie Doodle Easter Eggs

March 25, 2014 By Vidya Sukumaran 21 Comments

Before I get into the details of how I made these super easy Sharpie Doodle Easter eggs, need to tell you the back story on how I've displayed them in my home. The earliest memories I have of the snake plant is seeing it in my Achamma's (paternal grandmother) backyard. Every time we cooked eggs, my Achamma would crack the shell open gently so she could retain most of it intact, would then proceed to rinse the shell, head outside, and place it over the tall snake plant leaves! As my cousins and I grew older Achamma would delegate the task to us; we would patiently stand in line all excited waiting for our chance to decorate the snake plant with the egg shells! It took some amount of patience to balance the shell over the pointy leaves. If you do it fast you end up risking an egg shell … [Read more...]

Ringing in Spring Home Tour

March 23, 2014 By Vidya Sukumaran 44 Comments

Hope y'all had a great weekend. With a late season Nor'easter looming over us why waste time on small talk? Let's just kick off the Ringing in Spring 2014 Home Tour and pretend that Spring is here in full swing! As always my theme is "use what you have". The trick to accomplish this when decorating for seasons is to move things around. The accent colors in our living room is yellow and blue now thanks to "borrowing" a few accessories (the felt circle pillow and the yellow vase) from the guest room. The forsythia in vintage soda bottles and a vintage sawbuck game board that I scored on my antiquing trip to Purcellville add the touch of yellow to the Spring mantel. A close up of the game board and the bird bookend that switched places from the floating shelves. On the coffee table … [Read more...]

Happy First Day of Spring!

March 20, 2014 By Vidya Sukumaran 1 Comment

Couldn't be more excited for this day to be here. My tulips are starting to pop out of the ground through the snow, can't wait for them to bloom. Even more exciting, for the first time I'm hosting a Spring Home Tour! Starting next Monday, 14 other bloggers are joining me in opening our doors for you this season. Each of us are going to share how we are welcoming the season of flowers into our homes. So tighten your seat belts and get ready for the inspiration ride! 2/24 Monday Whats Ur Home Story The Happier Homemaker Inspiring Hearts & Homes 2/25 Tuesday Life in Velvet Fat Vegan Baby Up to Date Interiors 2/26 Wednesday Unexpected Elegance The Frugal … [Read more...]

Felt Flowers

March 18, 2014 By Vidya Sukumaran 8 Comments

I didn't discover felt until mid 2012 when I was looking into adding some glam to my daughter's hair bands. Needless to say ever since I made those felt rosettes I was hooked. Did you know, felt is one of the few textiles in the world that is non-woven? It is made by condensing and pressing the fibers together. And because there is no weave it doesn't unravel at a cut edge! This extra special quality makes it the best candidate for any craft. Just imagine what a mess it would have been if all those circles on my yellow pillow started to unravel! Or the rosettes on my felt tree. Plus the ease with which felt works with hot glue, it is the first thing I pick up when I'm ready to craft. So it was no big surprise that I fell back on the trusty felt flowers to make my Spring wreath. If you … [Read more...]

Felt Flowers & Fabric Scraps Spring Wreath

March 17, 2014 By Vidya Sukumaran 15 Comments

fabric scraps wreath, felt flower wreath, spring wreath

It is hard to envision bright, beautiful tulips (all 50 of them) dotting my walkway or the maple in our front yard full of fresh green leaves when you are shoveling almost a foot of snow from your driveway! But I know Spring is right around the corner; can smell it in the air, the way Mother Nature has been teasing us with 60ºF days, by the look of the not so brown grass, by the sneeze fest that I end up in every time I step out.... Yup she is right there for us to enjoy.....all we need to do is give Old man Winter a few more days to say goodbye.... Don't know about you but I have a hard time being patient about these things especially when it comes to thoughts about warm weather and being in flips flops again. Invariably the impatient imp that I'm find ways to trick myself into … [Read more...]

More Laundry Room Projects

March 13, 2014 By Vidya Sukumaran 1 Comment

What? Seriously, did you think that after all that hard work I'd be up for more projects any time soon? I'm still recouping from that Flat Washer chandelier! LOL! Jokes apart I'm over at The Cards We Drew sharing another laundry room project. You got a glimpse of it in this picture from Tuesday. Head on over and check it out and let me know what you think. See ya Monday! Have a great weekend! … [Read more...]

My Herringbone Ceiling & Washer Chandelier

March 11, 2014 By Vidya Sukumaran 52 Comments

Woot woot...part of the laundry room is ready! I couldn't wait for 'the rest of the room to take shape, so here we go! FYI: The room has no light source other than that light you see here and I haven't yet figured out how to take good pictures with a glaring bulb! What do you think of the red? Here is what happened while I was painting; The biggest Red fan in our home, my son, came along and asked, "Are you painting it red?" "Yes" "Yeah! We need more red in this house!" "Really?" "Of course!" Doesn't matter what I paint if I paint it red I'm sure I'll have a cheer leader at home! :) Actually my original plan was to stay away from red in this room ( red is my favorite color too and shows up in most of the rooms) but when I was looking for accessories all I was … [Read more...]

Simple Daisy Centerpiece

March 10, 2014 By Vidya Sukumaran Leave a Comment

Today I was going to show you at least part of the laundry room reveal but......... :( Over the weekend I've been teasing you with pictures of painting the ceiling and it looks like all that tape and the red paint color has many of you worried. Rest assured, it came out beautiful, even more beautiful that I had imagined. However, by the time I moved over to my DIY light fixture, my luck ran out (again!). I'm planing to make a last dash attempt at saving it today. Hoping against hope that this one doesn't end up the way my vintage lace chandy did. If all goes well at least part 1 of the reveal will be on the blog tomorrow. For now, a simple Daisy centerpiece. All the 3 varieties of flowers were from a grocery store bouquet and were varying shades of the same color, lavender. When it … [Read more...]

Do You Stumble?

March 6, 2014 By Vidya Sukumaran 4 Comments

stumbleupon basics, The basics of StumbleUpon, Using StumbleUpon for Traffic

I know most of us bloggers have heard about StumbleUpon, the social bookmarking site, but do we really use it? I did not, up until two months ago. Actually I tried using it when I started blogging without doing any research. The result = Total waste of time. So when the topic of StumbleUpon came up in one of my blogger groups I sharpened my ears. To my surprise there were quite a few folks recommending that both the reader and the blogger should be using SU! Why? For the reader, it is like an endless magazine catering just to you showing you only articles in the fields that you are interested in. For the blogger, of course it drives a ton of traffic to your blog! Who knew? It is true! I experienced the traffic surge firsthand almost every week last month! If you are having a hard time … [Read more...]