Shalini's Sewing Space

Master closet - Transformed DH started working on this when I was in India. We had discussed doing something with the closet and I had done sketches and started a design in IKEA design builder to come up with ideas last year. Nothing concrete because we wanted to explore all the options. He did the research while I was gone and started building it. Prior to this, we just had a single rail running all the way through with a wire rack to keep clothes. I don't think I have a picture of that but it's pretty standard in builder houses in our area. It is DONE!! My dream closet is done. This is the best possible shot from the outside. The right wall is completely mine, the back wall is his but there is some of my stuff there, the left wall is 50/50. Right wall My work tops and bottoms on the right. The main dresser has my indian dresses, night suits, workout clothes, t-shirts, jeans, etc. The thin side unit has undies, socks. More work tops on the left bottom, kurtas etc. on the top. ...

Mehul's Room Makeover We started on this room over the MLK weekend (not President's Day. I'm an idiot who can't keep them straight) ~ approx. a month ago! It has taken us so long to put the finishing touches on this. But I LOVE the way it looks. This is the first time I have a) used Orange b) used pen and paper to draw a plan. Usually I just have things planned in my head :) First up, the Focal wall. The prints are 12x16. The chalkboard painted on the wall. It is magnetic as well. Much work but too much fun!! The Bookcase wall. Bookcase is Expedit series from IKEA. I love the drawers and door cabinets (they're red so kinda hard to see!) I can hide away things out of site. Testing it out! The frames are also from IKEA. So are the curtains, the quilt, and the little coat hanger. This room turned out to be so much work but so worth it. We painted the 2 different shades of orange on opposite facing walls. We did the first paint without primer and it needed 3 coats! I...

Just busy I've been busy busy busy for many reasons. I had a work deadline which is now done. We are getting our basement built. The contractors started last weekend. We've been gathering ideas for the kitchen/bar area we wish to make there. Been to Lowe's, Home Depot, Ikea, etc. I loved one of the kitchens in Ikea and that's what we'll go with. We ordered the appliances from Sears on Black Friday and got quite good prices because of the sale. There will of course be pictures when everything is said and done. I cleaned the play room today. What a disaster area. Ugh. Currently, we're using the living room as the play room and use the family room to entertain the guests. That should change though because I can not handle the toys at the entrance of the house anymore. They are breeding like anything and are completely out of control. I have many ideas for organizing the playroom but lack the time rightnow. Once the basement is done, we'll move the playroom down...

HomeOffice Makeover Photos Before After I think I'm in love with the wallpaper. I love the look and putting it up wasn't too bad either. Current plan is to do it in Mehul's room, Dining room and possibly, Powder Room. It depends on finding the right paper. If nothing inspires me then we're going with paint.

Anyone need a scarf? Parents are gone. We had a 4 day weekend (no holiday, just vacation time). I have been knitting. A lot. DH is very bored and missing *my* parents more than I am. Does anyone else think there is something wrong with that? Besides me. So, in order to distract myself from the emptiness of the house after my parents left on Friday, I started a scarf for Mehul. And this morning, I put the last stitches (knits/purls?) into it. It's the best one yet. Wait till you see it :D Pictures coming soon. There might be a booty in there as well :D I was watching a hindi movie ( Kabhi Alwida Na Kehna ) and started noticing the scarves the actors were wearing. Instantly, I opened photoshop and noted a lot of the ideas. And came up with a bunch of new ones. Now I'm definitely a knitter, right? Because I'm coming up with scarf ideas :) I have plans to make vertical striped scarf and a boxy scarf. And a black and white very stripy scarf. We'll see how far I get. I usuall...

More Photography Belated Happy Mothers Day, and here is what I received from Mehul. He brought this card and flower home from the daycare. The card had a really lovely message and his handprints inside! DH took this one of the mini Taj Mahal. I am in an ATC card exchange (well, I was until April). This is all the cards I've sent or received! Pretty pretty. My first closeup with Manual Focus. Now he knows to smile for the camera We have prepped the Family room for painting so we'll be painting the first coat tonight. Here is the plan- Wed: First Coat. 1st Fan to be assembled. Thur: Second Coat. 2nd Fan to be assembled. Fri: FR Fan to be hung, paintings/photos hung on the walls, etc. Sat: Rods for sheers attached, sheers and curtains hung. Dang, we were planning to go to the zoo this weekend. Doesn't seem likely. I want to practice my photography and Mehul wants to see the birds. I might have to move the Saturday work to next week.

Fans I was going to respond in the comments, but then I remembered a little story so I decided to put it here. We have fan outlets, not just light ones, but fan ;) They were a touch costlier (remember, we got the house built so we got to chose what we wanted where). The house is central A/C ofcourse (I don't think there is any new construction in our area that isn't!) but sometimes, you just need the fan. Specially when I run, the AC or the little fan on the treadmill do nothing for me. On to the story, friends of ours got their house built an year before us. They bought it right when the seller's Market was starting to come down and interest rates were going up. Their builder (different builder than ours) charged them extensively for every little thing they wanted. Their lot backs to 2 rows of trees and they were charged $50K for lot premium where as regular lots are more like $5-10K. It was extortion but they really wanted the privacy. Not much thereof because when we vis...

Can I be any more absent minded? I forgot to bring my work laptop with me. To work. This is right up there with the time when I showed up for work on a holiday. DH went right back home and brought it for me (we were carpooling and he had the car) but this was pretty stupid. I generally don't take the laptop home with me so in order to not forget to bring it, I keep it with my purse near the kitchen desk or on the stairs where i sit to put my shoes on. Yesterday, we were getting ready to paint the Family room so I removed everything from there and all the Family room stuff is *everywhere*. But it is no excuse. Anyhow, we bought 2 fans yesterday as well as the paint for Family Room. Name of the shade of paint is 'Ornate gold' or something like that. It's a really pretty shade of mustardy gold. We got these fans - for family room and Master BR. Hunter 52" Yorkshire at Lowes . The center part has English Bronze finish and the blades are Dark Walnut. Hunter 52" G...

The MBR Project Before we moved our furniture in the room (September). I forgot to take a photo with the furniture! This is the Bedroom view from the Sitting Room. Sitting Room Before BR and Sitting Room After With Flash This one's Without Flash Nightstand. You can't see the phone clearly, but it's really pretty. I got it last year when I did the Library in the other house. But, it goes with this furniture more so it'll stay here. The Bedding I still need some things, like, curtains (on my next trip to India), The Perfect Paintings (as I find them), a Full Length Mirror (already selected it at Bed Bath and Beyond, just have to get it). Also, my Angel of Love will go in this room. So, majority of work in this room is done. I will keep decorating it little by little :) Oh, almost forgot! I will replace that ugly chair (or, DH's favorite rocker) in the Sitting room with a beautiful Chaise once I find it. No need to hurry, though :) And now, to think of the next project...

Birthday Scrapbook Some of you might know that we celebrated Mehul's First Birthday back in India. It was done in a semi-big way. That's the way 1st birthdays are done there, generally. All cousins, etc. were invited, and there was a DJ (Dance Jockey) with a dance floor. It was fun! We also had a photographer and videographer to tape the function. It's much cheaper than here, so most people are able to do this. Plus, we generally do a get-together to meet everyone anyway, because we go back every 2 years. I kept looking at the photos and thinking of cool ways to scrap them. Hadn't come up with a plan. Until Monday night. I started with one photo of my sister and BIL with Mehul. Her Sari color inspired me to look in my Ztampf folder. Lots of common colors there, and the rich papers are going to be perfect for this scrapbook. I've done 5(!) Layouts since then. Unfortunately, I don't have them with me rightnow. Last night, we went to Kohl's to pick up a train ...

Paint, paint, paint... Paint: Check Tape: Check Rollers: Check Tarp: Nope As you can probably tell, we are getting ready for painting. First paint job in this house. Wish us luck. The first time we painted at the other house, we managed to spill some paint on the carpet. We have this huge canvas that we use to cover the carpet while painting, but some paint has always managed to get through. We have to get a plastic tarp to put underneath it. We have a Tray ceiling in the room, that's turning out to be a challenge. If you're not familiar with what this is, it looks like an inverted tray. The center part is recessed and there is crown molding on the edges. There are 4 recessed lights in that portion too. We want to do some decorative treatment in the center portion. That's still not final, so we'll start with painting the walls. The nightstands have been ordered (1 for MBR, another for Guest BR). I also got some table lamps and other things. Can't wait to get started...

Weekend Plans Tomorrow morning some friends are dropping by to look at the available plots in our community. They can't get over the fact that how big the house is, specially the kitchen/Family Room area. They have only been looking for 1 month and after seeing our house, they are practically ready to move in. LOL! We are going to get some furniture this weekend. We bought most of our furniture when we moved to our first house. Everything is still pretty new, and we got nice things that would last a while. We have to get some barstools and a nightstand. This is our Master Bedroom collection. The photo is from the store's website, not our room. It shows all the things we got - Queen Bed, NightStand, Dresser & Mirror, TV Armoire. However, we only got 1 nightstand because that's all that would fit in the MBR at the time. Now, we have a bigger MBR and a sitting room attached to it. We've moved the Armoire into the sitting room. So, we're getting the other nightstand...

Powder Room makeover...Take 2 The makeover is underway. The plumber installed the Toilet and the Sink last night. It's funny how we got the plumber so quickly. We had not even started looking! Last week, we had gone to Lowe's to pick up our faucets and things, and we ran into P, who is actually a friend from my neighborhood in Delhi! Her parents house is on the same street as us. She moved to Virginia a year after I moved. We've been meeting since then. They too have recently bought their Single Family House in VA, and moved a little farther away from us. Anyhow, they were there to look for some stuff for their Basement Bath remodel at their old place that they're renting. They said good things about their plumber. We hadn't even had the time to call anyone or look for a plumber. So, we went that night and met him as he was doing work at their place. Luckily he was available this week. Plus, he's cheap. I like it when things work this way :D So, he has finished ...

Powder Room Remodel..Take 1 The freshly minted house keys have not yet cooled down, we're ready to remodel. LOL. Yep. That's us. We are Self Professed Home Improvement Junkis. We had ordered some of the things from Lowe's when we ordered our Refrigerator and Washer/Dryer before we closed on the house. We did have the option of getting the same from the Builder but we did our research and found that we can get it for much cheaper (almost half) the price outside, and get it installed at a fair rate too. So, that's what we're doing. Our very first remodel. Kohler Pedestal Sink - Portrait(Bisque) Kohler Toilet - Portrait(Bisque) We have selected the Faucets and accessories too, and will be picking them up this Sunday. (Psst..Lowe's is clearing out it's inventory of a lot of items, so many things will be 50% off this weekend. Check out your store.) Ok, you want to see pictures of what we've picked, right? Delta Victorian Lavatory Faucet Delta 2-Light Victor...