Trumatter

Thursday

From My Front Porch To Yours – Treasure Hunt Thursday

http://theorganisedhousewife.com.au/love-it-like-it-link-it/love-it-like-it-link-it-7/

saturday

http://funkyjunkinteriors.blogspot.in/2012/04/sat-nite-special-130-link-party.html

Sunday

My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia – Tuesday Treasure
Coastal Charm – Nifty Thrifty
Vintage Wanna Bee – Talent Tuesday

For the love of enamelware…

Posted on May 25, 2012 by Rukmini Roy

Source

I am in Love. Yet again.

With Prussian blue and pristine white chipped enamelware

And I am falling head over heels, going topsy turvy.

Source

And how could I not be lovesick for this vintage red and white, perfectly chipped little crock pot.

What makes this love even more strong? It is far. It is unavailable. It is out of my reach.

I can only wish for. Like I wish for a luxury yacht or Kate Middleton’s outfits. Umm, not that unreachable maybe!

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*Sigh* How I love thee! Can I just take you from my screen? Life would have been so much easy.

I have been so tormented by these humble enameled beauties over the last couple of days that I was compelled to do a post.

Maybe I will whip up a plan to make some faux enamel decoratives. Just to calm this soul.

Necessity. Necessity.

Guest post @my1929charmer

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Rukmini Roy

A quick announcement: Ladies and Gentlemen, head over to Cathy’s where I am guest posting this week. We are turning our old tee’s into fabulous beach bags.

You’ll find the tutorial + cathy’s wonderful blog + I’ll be so happy you visited!!!

Say Yay for me, yeah?

See you there!

DIY Bar Cart Makeover

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Rukmini Roy

I’ll start with a thought here rather than my usual hello. You see, over the years, blogging and thrifting have taught me one singular thing: the best pieces of furniture often remain unsought for people hardly see what’s beyond apparent perception. Although this was not unpleasant to apparent perception by standards, I loved the woody texture that was painted to the glass but it was just not me. So, what did happen? It’s very easy to guess. Like everything else in this house, it got a fresh dollop of white and a little nautical love! I am definitely going to furniture heaven like Maureen said!

You know on many an occasion and more have I heard that “is everything in your home refurbished?” “Is this also from the flea market and cost 150 bucks?” Like, oh, this girl lives out of rags types. But that’s okay if they don’t get the drift of doing something unusual. Yes, I do think twice before I spend my money and if there’s something I like and I can do it on my own, I will do it in half the cost than spend twice the money. I feel absolutely fantastic about it. How about you?

So, when I received this bar cart from Rohan’s mom, I instantly knew I’m in love with it. More so for what it could be than what it was, not to forget that I always wanted a bar trolley but never bought one owing to the space. But looks like I didn’t need to restraint myself from buying one all this years. It happily found its own little nook. A little beachy corner rather!

Rohan was in Kerala for a business trip this weekend and believe me without him my time just don’t seem to pass. Hence I keep all my DIY’s when he is not around. Plus, one major perk of doing things when he is not around is I love when he comes home and says, “oh, this is looking nice” or “the room is looking great, you foofed something?” The expressions are priceless.

The very same morning that he flew, I started working on this bar cart and I was done before a day he was in. Yay!

I cleaned the whole thing with soap water and let it dry. Next with the help of sellotape I marked the part I wanted Navy and colored everything else in white.

Once it was dry, I removed the sellotape, retaped the white edges and gave the uncolored patch 2 coats of navy blue.

Once everything was dry, the whole trolley got another coat of white and clear gloss.

Are you not tempted to see what it was?

Like I said, I really liked the wood patina here but somehow it wasn’t me.

Now it is

Likey?

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Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

From My Front Porch To Yours – Treasure Hunt Thursday

http://theorganisedhousewife.com.au/love-it-like-it-link-it/love-it-like-it-link-it-7/

saturday

http://funkyjunkinteriors.blogspot.in/2012/04/sat-nite-special-130-link-party.html

Sunday

My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia – Tuesday Treasure
Coastal Charm – Nifty Thrifty
Vintage Wanna Bee – Talent Tuesday

DIY: How to make pro-looking blog headers in WordPress

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Rukmini Roy

Hello ladies and gentlemen.

I kinda have something off the topic to show you today but not uninteresting at all. Infact this is something we’ll all like considering its the blog headers I’m talking about!

An easy tutorial on how to make your own blog header. Would you like that?

I have a couple of Blog headers to show you that I made from some old photographs today!

Tell you what, it was fun!

My Tool is photoshop CS5. So, this will hold true only if you have photoshop

Let’s start then

First go to Dashboard—>Appearance–>Headers and see the size of the image that you’ll need to put up. In my case it was 885 x 252 Pixels.

Next, open your photoshop and on the left top corner, find “File”

Click on “New” and paste the pixels in the pixel bar

You will see a patch of white canvas open on the window

Now, drag your photographs one by one and place it on top of the blank canvas

Once you ave placed the photograph you will see adjustable frame around it. Hold SHIFT + LEFT mouse to resize it according to the size you want to be fixed.

You can also not press shift but pressing shift reduces or increases the size of the picture in proportion. Without shift you might just find it a little too elongated or fat. DO IT.

Once you are satisfied with the size, position your image with the help of move tool

You can see the move tool, top right.

I’ll also tell you a little about the marquee tool. It’s basically used to cut a portion from the image. But more on this later.

NOTE

1. Always keep the layers open: Go to windows on the photoshop menu and click layers from the drop down or you can use F7

2. In case you need to choose a layer (a particular photograph), move your “Move” tool on top of that image, click and drag. If you want to adjust its size, CTRL + T. You will see the parameter appearing.

Just keep adding photographs till you are satisfied.

Now, press CTRL + S and save your file in either .png or .jpg.

.png becomes a bit heavy though!

All gibberish or no?

Let me know if you’d like it more detailed

If anyone’s trying this, positively leave me a comment

Trumatter’s Tried and Tested: Mulberry Pancake with Honey Recipe

Posted on May 9, 2012 by Rukmini Roy

And this one’s a soul stirrer!

Morning, to all those who frequent this little space. Is the sun shining at yours? It’s scorching at mine but I don’t see why I should not have pancakes. Do you?

After a series of makeovers and mental workouts, it’s time to kick back, take it easy, keep calm and have pancakes. In an idealistic situation, mulberry pancakes.

So, who all like me believe in the fact that good food acts as a relaxant for the mind and soul (if not body and I am talking about 6 kilos overweight). From buying ingredients to washing, cutting and grinding, from the crisp sound of cutting through a fresh capsicum to the happy clanking of the ladles, from seeing how different ingredients with their individualistic taste acts in harmony to bring about a flavor that smells like none of the ingredients that has gone into making it to tasting it and take a deep breath just to say that its come out fantastic. I enjoy food. I find solace in it. It soothes my soul and I like when I share this soul soothing treats with people I love and they make happy faces.

If there is anything (note: thing) I love unconditionally, it is food. I love cooking for people I like, I hate cooking for people I don’t like, I DISLIKE when someone simply walks in my kitchen and touches things I have put in order, unless I really like that person, I like to show my love by the efforts I have put in my cooking, I eat when I am depressed, I eat when I am happy- I revolve around food, I kid you not. Best part is even the person I love most in the world enjoys food and is serious about it, although he doesn’t enjoy sweet treats.

One more thing that I am very tempted to talk about here is, how women unnecessarily increase the difficulty level of this matter by simply binding a simple recipe/kitchen task to a set of must follow rules or “you wont be able to do it”s that discourages a lot of people to try it out. Most of my friends don’t cook simply because they think its difficult and on occasions that they volunteered to help in the kitchen they have been shooed away telling that “its difficult. You won’t be able to do it”. I dont blame them. That’s how it is always portrayed. What people don’t understand is, as long as they don’t try, how will they learn? Actually I also get a lot of funny answers. Sometimes when I really like a dish, I tend to ask its maker the recipe. Surprisingly, most of them begin with the line, “It’s a little difficult actually…”. BOLLOCKS. Honestly I think the only reason why chef’s don’t share their recipes is because they are insecure that everyone might be able to cook. Makes sense?

I’ll agree that that it’s not all that easy and to cook you must have a knack for cooking and a bit of common sense (or chemistry and physics will do); throw in a couple of hand-me-down cooking genes if you have that is. But that’s pretty much what you need to be a good cook really. The least you need to be a good cook are culinary rules and “you cant” prohibitions. No woman, no rules You are not making a step-up transformer. Plus there is always room for innovations. You might just burn something and come with a dish that tastes smoked and extraordinary. There is always so much room for individualism and experimentation. Someone, somewhere must have taken the risk to go beyond rules that we have some of the best tasting dishes today. In fact some of the best things I have tasted were born out of sheer failures n experimentation. Why, we have our brownies topping the list? Don’t we? So, here’s the drift: Cooking is not difficult. And like Gusto said, everyone can cook.

I can talk so much, can’t I? Regardless I’d love to share a slice of happiness with you: ladies interested in a tea party, here in India? I really like all of you.

Just in case you’d want to have a taste of this at yours, here’s the recipe

1 cup all purpose flour

A pinch of baking powder

2tbsp granulated sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup mulberries

Honey (optional)

Mix up everything in a bowl except the mulberries. Add them later or you might just have purple pancakes which is not bad either

In a flat non stick girdle, ladle a spoonful and cook both sides golden

Serve warm with honey and mulberries

Happiness Simplified

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Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

From My Front Porch To Yours – Treasure Hunt Thursday

http://theorganisedhousewife.com.au/love-it-like-it-link-it/love-it-like-it-link-it-7/

saturday

http://funkyjunkinteriors.blogspot.in/2012/04/sat-nite-special-130-link-party.html

Sunday

My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia – Tuesday Treasure
Coastal Charm – Nifty Thrifty
Vintage Wanna Bee – Talent Tuesday

DIY: Beachy Wine Bottle Chandelier

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Rukmini Roy

Morning o’ faithful of Trumatter. How is your day looking? It’s been a while that the premium electrician took on a project and after a series of tees and makeovers I thought it was time to enlighten ourselves with some wine bottle chandelier (the wine will enlighten you as well) in my beachy little apartment.

So, while you are spreading your mulch, I’m giving junk my best hand. Behold, we have wine bottle chandelier on the house this week.

Last Saturday we had a small jamming and photoshoot/video session in our living room, a national radio station for international music called myopus radio wanted to make us the “Big Fish” or the featured artist of the month. Clearly a lot of beers and wines flowed and when amongst everything I wanted to keep the super cute wine bottles, that our friend @wastedramblings got who also plays drums for Colaba Point, they called me “bhangarwali”- which means trash collector from the streets. Haha…I knew the looks would change once I made what I wanted to. Rohan Kadam didn’t give me any looks. He is too used to this magnificent transformations (Beat you self drum, beat)

Once everything was over, I cut the bottles with yarn, the tutorial of which you can find here and spray painted them with ocean blue. I sprayed them unevenly and little rustic. You can be the miss perfect. Next, I tied them to one another with rope and waited to put in the fairy lights.

I cut the wine bottles from the base but you can also do without it. It will not make a difference.

How to tie the fairy lights

1. measure the length in which you have tied the bottles

2. make 3 clusters (since I had 3 bottles) keeping in between the length of the wire that will be twined with the rope

3. Now start from the bottle below and gradually go up. Put the clusters in the bottle and entwine the lenth of the fairy lights in between with the rope

4. ask your electrician to help you connect it to a wire and hang it from the ceiling

This is how it looks st night!

Cool, right?

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Tuesday

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Thursday

From My Front Porch To Yours – Treasure Hunt Thursday

http://theorganisedhousewife.com.au/love-it-like-it-link-it/love-it-like-it-link-it-7/

saturday

http://funkyjunkinteriors.blogspot.in/2012/04/sat-nite-special-130-link-party.html

Sunday

My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia – Tuesday Treasure
Coastal Charm – Nifty Thrifty
Vintage Wanna Bee – Talent Tuesday

DIY: No Sew, Ruffled Summer Top Tutorial

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Rukmini Roy

Morning y’all. How’s it going at yours? looks like this parched little place will have its first glass of rain today.

Such a relief will it be if it does ‘coz its 43 degrees here and its killing us. To top, we are also having frequent power cuts. Argh, so not ideal. Where you at summer halter tops and tank dresses?

I dont know if I have told you all before but power cut makes me very creative. Lol, yeah, you heard me right, it does. The last time there was a 5 hour power cut, I transformed my entire wardrobe with paint and fabric. You can read all about it here. So you know where I am getting at right?

Last Sunday was a power-cut-a-thon. It just flew every after 40 minutes or so and stayed for about a couple of hours straight, everytime- obviously, with no TV, music playing (which plays all the time) and no internet, I tried reading a book. But hey Joe, this aint that country where you have “balmy” summer afternoons. Its straight away ticket to hell. Finding it hard to concentrate I thought of changing into something light. Guess what? All I see is formals.

Cut to

I’m digging the huge plastic bag that’s supposed to go poor children. And guess what I find?

A beaten-with-age tee and some scrap fabric. Ah! My dear old purple tee, how I love thee. How could I give you away. I decided to do “something” with my old wardrobe flame. Flew in scissors and fabric glue.

Oh and btw, in endeavors such as this I dont feel hot. I feel alright. Infact, I dont feel pain, hunger, cold or anything related to feelings when I am onto a DIY project. It and it solely controls my sensory and autonomous.

Here I am wearing the discarded plain tee which is now a chic top.

Let’s have a quick word on what you’ll need:

A tee

scissors

fabric glue

a piece of fabric, atleast 1/2 a meter long

Here’s the tutorial.

You can see the tee in all its faded glory here! Lol.

Basically, cut the sleeves and secure the ends with fabric glue first. Let it dry for about 5-7 minutes before proceeding onto the next level. I wanted a boat necked effect, you can cut according to the kind of sleeve you like…or simply ruffle your plain tee up.

Next, cut your scrap fabric into a long strip, the height of which you can decide depending on how long would you like your ruffle to be and secure the loose ends with fabric glue. My scrap fabric already had it hemmed on one side so I skipped this part.

Once the strip of fabric is dry, form the ruffles.

I formed the pattern on the neck first and secured every ruffle to its succeeding fold with fabric glue so that I can have a ruffled strip, ready to be attached when its dry. (You can see this step in the picture above)

Once the ruffle was dry, I placed it on the neck of the tee and secured the unstitched end: I overlapped the tee collar with the ruffle.

Let it dry for about an hour and you are ready to flaunt your brand new ruffled tee that’s perfect for summer

Good?

Roy XO

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Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

From My Front Porch To Yours – Treasure Hunt Thursday

http://theorganisedhousewife.com.au/love-it-like-it-link-it/love-it-like-it-link-it-7/

saturday

http://funkyjunkinteriors.blogspot.in/2012/04/sat-nite-special-130-link-party.html

Sunday

My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia – Tuesday Treasure
Coastal Charm – Nifty Thrifty
Vintage Wanna Bee – Talent Tuesday

Before and After, Harlequin tabletop tutorial, Remembrance & Old is the new, new!

Posted on April 26, 2012 by Rukmini Roy

Morning ladies! How have you been lately? Let me just cut things short and say that if you like all things summer, bright, playful and love to have your ice tea by the porch, admiring your freshly painted table you’re in for a treat for I have a table makeover with harlequin pattern, something I have never done before. Best part is, for the longest time, I didn’t even know this pattern had a name and this reminds me of a beautiful conversation with my paternal Granny who, according to me is the DIY queen, my idol. (for the before table pictures, skip below)

If she was born in a time where internet and blogging existed, I am very sure she would have been one of the eminent designers by now. And why I tell you this, I wish I could show you the drapes she made with sarees or the plaster of pairs plaques, the recycled egg cartons and thrown away plastic planters. She was a genius not recognized, but not lost. This time when I travel north, I wish to bring a couple of things she made for me and do a post on it…She is 94, she broke her left hand and cannot move it anymore, she can hardly hear, she sometimes talks to herself but she is still telling me over the phone how to repaint old plastic bottles and keep climbers in them. She also made the yummiest of pastries. Actually, I am very much like her. Her genes have passed to moi and like her I have a problem. I never rest till I get/achieve what I want or what appeals to me. I cannot leave a project unfinished, it pricks me. If 2 days go by and I don’t tend to it, I get dreams about it. I just have to have it done and my way or else it gives me a weird restlessness. I made a table with thumbtacks but it suddenly struck me that maybe I could bring in her flooring pattern into the new coffee table that Rohan’s mom gifted me. But hello! It’s also in vogue now- its called the Harlequin Pattern. Talk about old is the new, new!

In my grandma’s home, before she moved in with us and we sold it, the floors were all in black and white diamond shaped marble. Honestly, I always liked them and thought they were really cool. I used to put tin soldiers in each one of the squares and make them fight! But in my home, that kinda floor was impossible. Firstly because most of my life I lived in the hills, where wooden planks were the only option. Marbles were a complete no no as it’s very cold. Secondly, when we moved to the plains, tiled flooring is what ma wanted which left me with no harlequin flooring. Sob-sob. Now, I live on rent which means bag full of restrictions hence the closest I could get to my dream pattern is to have a checkered table. So, off goes the thumbtacks except for the mid panel and in comes white paint. Shine on you crazy diamond!

Painting a harlequin pattern can be fun but it’s not as easy as checkered pattern. I did it with duck tapes and here is a pattern that you can use, if you wish to paint your table. I created this in photoshop and then printed it. Next I taped my table following the pattern with a thin tape and painted.

You’ll start with a sqaure. If your table is rectangle, divide it into 2 squares.

Once you have a square, divide it into 4 smaller squares. You can do this freehand or with a measuring tape or ruler.

Now, without diagonally dividing the squares make triangles in each square and shown above. Also, the tip of each triangle should meet the tip of the other. Keep repeating this for each square until you are done drawing all the triangles. You’ll end up with a harlequin pattern.

Here’s a colored view.

Easy?

Here’s how the table was followed by 2 coats of black again.

You can get a worn out look by light sanding or keep it shiny and glossy. Make sure to accentuate your table with bright individual colors like fuchsia, turquoise, yellow or red. If you have a cottage look to your home like mine, throw in some bright flowers in a metal can and some colored hard bind books! They look fantastic.

So will you be making these?

Toodles

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Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

From My Front Porch To Yours – Treasure Hunt Thursday

http://theorganisedhousewife.com.au/love-it-like-it-link-it/love-it-like-it-link-it-7/

saturday

http://funkyjunkinteriors.blogspot.in/2012/04/sat-nite-special-130-link-party.html

Sunday