Update With A Tint

What I thought would sound normal to my husband came to him as a jolt. His first reaction was "You have gone crazy". I agree, I am crazy but a sound of restriction to my idea is never good. I will make sure I get my way through it. So, what exactly lead to this reaction. I said I wanted to give a makeover to our dining table, which by the way is already perfect to my husband (and may be to the rest of the world).

I know, I totally hear your reaction. Thanks for all those who support my makeover decision :)
Speaking of perfect, it is so subjective and relative to every viewer. Well I'll give you that it is relatively new (we bought it 6 months ago) but it sure wasn't perfect to me. If it's not my liking then its not perfect - so simple.

For all those who are thinking like my husband, I really don't have any substantial reasoning to convince you.
I read this somewhere around my vicinity, it said - "some minds are like concrete, they are already mixed up and set"  - So if your mind is already set I really don't think I would try to explain myself.
Probably the same saying applies to me too (in a positive way). You see I am determined :)

So, we (I) bought this dining table online after my husband gave his specifics about his liking and budget. After multiple searches finally we agreed on the one that we bought.I always wanted a glass top one for the formal  dining area and my husband wanted a solid wood just like the one in Biju's house (one of our friend). I had a different taste than his of course. But since I got to do the chairs according to my liking, I had to give in for the table choice. When the piece arrived, as usual the online blunder surfaced. The wood stain was not what I was expecting to see. I liked the style but the color looked very non-contemporary (don't want to say traditional). Right away I knew either we (I) will disown the table soon or I will have to update with a tint of my choice.

After watching ton of videos and reading blogs I dared to venture into my very own staining project. I knew I was risking what I already had with my inexperience. But I had to go for it. With my husbands help we disassembled the table and moved it into the garage. We bought the needed supplies from Home Depot (A home improvement store). Then the grueling process of sanding started. My idea was to just take off the varnish shine and not go to the bare wood.It's almost near to impossible to get to bare wood if I was going to sand it by hand. Half way through sanding I realized I may have messed up the whole piece by putting more effort than what is required. I scratched around rather rubbing it along the wood grain (despite knowing the no# 1 rule of sanding at the onset). Well, there is nothing you can do about it, the harm is already done and so I had no choice now but to keep going.

It took me about a total of 2 hours to sand down - (pitched in at different times), I gave the 1st coat of stain (after cleaning the dust of course). I hated it more than ever. Pssstt...I sure did start to doubt my decision and even called it quits and started to search for a new dining table online (again). But my dear darling husband (who was unsupportive at the beginning) did not take this opportunity to nitpick on me.
Instead he encouraged - gave me a pep talk, hugged me and asked me to finish what I started. He gave me hope that the second coat might give what I am looking for.
After my second coat voila, I did it. I brought back life into the table (and also myself). Now it has the finish (close enough) that I was aiming for. I was even able to cover-up the scratches too (most of it). Finally things worked out (I want to think).

So what did I learn through this - Well I learned a lot of things (and so did my husband), here are some:

1) Even-though you may use a brush to do the staining, it is still staining and not painting. It takes time for the the stain to set in (normally 24hrs between every coat). So be patient.

2) Most every DIY project will have some flaws (especially when done by a novice). Majority of the times there will be someway to patch it up. Bing/Google it.

3) we spent 400$ (Cost of the table) + 50$ (On the makeover supplies) to bring it to my liking. If we would have spent a little more time and if I had exhibited the same patience that I showed in my sanding, may be we (I) could have bought a table that had the style and stain to my liking for the same cost. But I would have never learnt the art of staining and put my very own hand stamp on it - feeling accomplished - which is "Priceless" :)

And what did my husband learn? The answer is ....................... well you all know! :)

Here are some pictures for you and the final updated look of my dining.

 I painted the walls myself and took help from  Pankaj (our friend) in fixing the chandelier.

The Story Of My Lense

Yes, I am talking about the camera. Every one these days owns a camera. I am not forgetting the Smart Phones of today. Taking candid and momentary pictures could not have been any easier. Just that random click to save in a memory stick. Ain't that one remarkable invention. These days its easy to walk down the memory lanes. The only way I have captured my childhood/school/college/vacation days are in my very own god gifted memory. I am sure some special moments have just faded away. But that's the way it was.

The 1st time I had my very own camera was after my marriage (which belonged to my husband and I could conveniently call it mine). Travelling without a camera was a sin for me, not because I wanted to shoot pictures around and capture the beauty of nature. It was all about me. I LOVED my picture taken.  I should remind you that it was a film camera not even digital. We would take our Camera but many a times forget to fill in new batteries or for that matter even film roll or sometimes even both. We would go far off the city to some quiet scenic place and then all the "Say Cheese" moments are down the drain.

There was this one time we were in a beautiful coastal place (Very crowded of course) called "Ayia Napa" (in Cyprus) and we clicked a lot of pictures, well my husband clicked and I posed most of the times.  It was an overnight trip and I was so excited to get back home and have the film developed. The following week when my husband went to pick up the photos from the studio the man in there said none of the pics came out clear. He said probably you did not load the film properly. My husband right away knew he was in trouble. (I am not going to discuss what happened next, I will leave it to your imagination).

That event eventually got me upgraded to a digital camera (which we bought from Germany). Of course we visited a lot of places from then until this new camera came but I never wanted to take the film camera and so we ended up having less pics taken and hence less money spent on developing the films. I guess we saved on the developing cost that might have gone into buying this digital one :)

Since then we have bought 2 more digital cameras as a result of wrecking the older one and now I own my very own DSLR (which by the way looks like the coolest thing to hold when you are travelling). Its been over an year now. I haven't used the camera to its capacity but I try. We still carry our sleek digital pocket camera for convenience sake and yes we do sometimes forget to put memory stick or charge the built-in battery. At such times we like to see the world using our smart phones.

Here are some pics for taken from my 1st, 2nd and 3rd(current) digital cameras, my DSLR and from a smartphone. Take a guess which one of these pics came from which camera.

Home Aesthetics - 101

Many of you know that we recently bought our 1st home. Finally we found a city to root ourselves for years to come. Our humble vote of thanks to the almighty for that.  It's been an exciting journey promoting ourselves from a renter's status to homeowner's status.

People who have known me for years know that I have been wanting to bring out my interior decor skills and apply it to each and every corner available :) (which we (I) have obviously attempted).

Over the years my taste, likes, style and design has changed (or should I say Updated!). Thanks to HGTV - "My Teacher". I learnt a lot from them. Every decor style has a name. It could be as simple as "Ethnic" or as fancy as "Eclectic" ☺. You can even use names of 2 different styles and coin a word to come up with your own style name! If you must know "Shabby Chic" is one of the style name. I swear I did not come up with that.

In this due course of working towards putting our stamp on the house - We (I) made a handful of incorrect choices, we definitely have tried to make it right (or cover it up). We (I) bought a lot of stuff, we returned a few, we exchanged some, we donated a bunch. After all this I can't really say if we are (I am) done, because the heart always wants more.

No matter how much we learn from HGTV or magazines or by observing or from the superfluous info/pics on the internet, I am sure there will be at least one such space in  our home where we all will struggle finalizing the aesthetics. There are always going to be different ways of styling and arranging. But here is the truth - No matter what the end result may look like - "It's not bad taste just because its not according to other's taste". Who knows it might be even a better taste ☺

If the "Decorating - 101" rule book doesn't mention your style/choice then lets start a new rule book called "Decorating - 101 + 1". So here is my book of "Decorating - 101 + 1" and these are some of the pics from that ☺

Happy - 2014

Its been over 2 years I haven't made any attempts in painting my thoughts. Hoping this year I would bring them to you whenever possible.

Every year I would make a list for me and my family like what we want to accomplish that year, which places to go, how much we can splurge, what yearly events we can participate, What can we do different and many such things.
I read somewhere that occasional detour down the (good) memory lane can lift your spirits high. The study even went to the extent of quantifying that - "Thinking of good memories just for 20 min a day can make people more cheerful".   I agree to this 100% and I have already started to practice before I want to preach to others.

Some of you may disagree to this but it works for me and my family and we have been doing it for long. We (I) like to have an agenda and try to fulfill as much as possible. Of course there are always overflows which is carried forward the the next year.

This year it is different. This is probably the 1st year in my last 7 years I have absolutely "No Plans" or any "To Do" list. We (I) decided to take it easy this year with no agenda. The only thing I am focusing on is on the word "Happiness".

I am sure life will throw many curveball at us but next time you have a tough day, do yourself a favor by drawing that one memory card from your repertoire and see for yourself how worthy it is. Because only you can be the chauffeur for your happiness. "Cheer up".