December: Christmas & Festivities!

My most distinct memories of December are from the time when I was at school. Having studied at a Christian school, its hard to forget the ritual of witnessing/ acting in the Nativity play followed by the fun Christmas party, every year before the Christmas break. This went on for fourteen years of my life!

Well, it was always great for the kids who played the main characters like Mary and Joseph and even the three wise men, baby Jesus in the manger was mostly some toddler's doll, who probably named it Jesus after that. The awkward part, however, was for those who got picked to play the farm animals. Being on all fours for the length of the play, wearing a sheep face or worse if you were the donkey or the ox, was never a pretty feeling. Let alone the mockery one had to face at the hands of the bored audience who had little to do other than that. The dancing and singing at the party after helped cover up a little though. If only liquor chocolates were to be handed out as Christmas gifts, it could have been the perfect ending!

Nevertheless, it has always been an exciting time, be it the excitement of breaking for Christmas holidays back then or of partying with friends and family now. So while we are high on festive spirit, I'd like to share some great Christmasy ideas for your homes.

Here is a beautiful Christmas look put together by The Home Label, an interesting and unique layout as they use red and blue instead of the obvious greens.

The Home Label is not just another online home store, it is more of a home decor manual, a goto place when you are in decorating doubt. They do not poke you to buy, but instead provide you with curated ready to adopt looks based on different themes. Their products help you add style and character to your homes, the talented Sussanne Roshan being their stylist. You can shop this Christmas look here.

Some of my other favourite looks from this store are this and this. Go check them out and thank me later.

Wish you all a Happy Christmas and holidays filled with tonz O fun!

Image: The Home Label

Bowl Head

A great lamp is to a place  what a great shoe is to a lady, they both have transformative powers!

 People who appreciate beauty in general, they also try to beautify their surroundings. And as it grows to becomes a habit, then even an object of utility like a reading lamp has to look good.

When we were looking for reading lamps for the exhibit, there were multiple choices. What we wanted? Initially we had no clue! So we decided to narrow down the choices based on the requirement. What is the purpose of the lamp? Reading/ providing limited concentrated light which could sometimes also be used to accentuate a corner or a place. Design? We thought it should be simple yet noticeable, so we could either play around with the shape & size or the colors. We decided to go with sophisticated colors and a good size while keeping the design simple.

What we came up with?

A perfect piece for that table next to the couch in the living room, for you to cozy up under it's light and read your favorite book!

Or 

For that study table where you spend most of your time working, it'll provide the right light and will sit there looking all elegant 

Or 

For your bedside tables, the right colored pair can become the highlight of the room. 

It's sort of an all rounder and we are calling it the BOWL HEAD! It comes in 3 colors - Vintage Gold, Pewter and Matte Black. 

Vintage Gold

Pewter

Matte Black

To place orders:

Send us an email on decoratemepretty@gmail.com 

Keep Calm and Carry On!

While many of us have been busy loving the phrase and trying to get our hands on anything from a poster to a coffee mug with the phrase on it, we may have forgotten to stop and wonder where it came from.

And this is where it gets interesting! You see, you can always expect to attract my undivided attention when something has to do with history. This is so contradictory to the fact that the subject was my least favorite in school, but let's talk about that some other time. Back to the topic, so when I came across this video I thought "This is one cool piece of information that deserves to be shared!" (thought like a true social media junkie!). So go on and watch...

Video: You Tube

One of my recent favorite recreations of the poster:

Image: Etsy

Do you feel differently about the Keep Calm items now that you have seen this video? Do write in and let us know...

My Bathroom's Prettiness!

Did you know that an average person spends one and a half years of his lifetime in the bathroom? No? Well now you do!

So now that you are aware of this fun fact, and one and a half years being a long time, we'd like to believe that you would want your bathroom to be as pretty as the rest of your home. After all you are going to spend all that time in there!

In this age when we have so many options to choose from, it's not hard to get it right when it comes to the basic fittings in a bathroom. But we always believe that beauty is in the details. For instance, not everyone has the luxury of spacious bathrooms and most of us face the problem of storage. Where to store all your towels & toiletries? Take a look at these creative solutions... 

A step ladder - An ace way to utilize space!

A vertical  rack

Great design & compact!

Presentation is everything! If it is a pretty sight then you ought to love it. Even your toiletries can look appealing if they are arranged & presented well and here is how...

  

And fresh flowers never fail to add beauty no matter where...

Or you could even add a plant, always a happy maker!

Framed art anyone?

And in the end a message from us, the germaphobes!

All Images: Pinterest

Decorate Me Pretty at Vanity Fair!

This year March brought 2 things with it, a whole lot of FUN and a hell lot of BUSY! But as both of them got along pretty well, we ended up having a BLAST!

We at Decorate Me Pretty decided to take a step forward this year and do something different (when I say 'We' I mostly mean my sister and myself). So we went around the city and further, looking for pretty things and at times explaining our ideas to the karigars and getting them made. So after a lot of car rides, brain storming sessions during these car rides, over meals and every other place imaginable and meetings with some wonderful people, we were finally ready with our first ever collection. 

Now about the collection! I believe your tastes and style have a lot to do with the place you are in life at the time. If we were to define our place in life right now, it's more of a lounging on a couch with margaritas or reading/ browsing the net in a comfy corner kind of a situation. Which is why we like to call our collection 'The Living Room' collection. What we aim to achieve is a lovable set up with a pinch of glamour to keep things interesting and also to make sure that apart from other uncontrollable factors in life, atleast the room would never dull you down. 

P.S. Don't get too carried away with the term 'Living Room', it could mean different things to different people. Like for me my bedroom was the living room when I was staying  in a studio apartment when I first started working, so it is actually any place in the house where you spend most of your time. 

The idea was to create a collection of things we loved and to put it out there in front of the world. So after we ticked the first task off the list, now we needed an apt place to showcase in front of the right audience. And Voila!!! Enter Vanity Fair...

A brief about this event Vanity Fair before I go ahead...held at Whispering Willows a farm house turned into a beautiful garden, happens biennially and is one of the most sought after events of the city Chandigarh. A marketplace where you can find clothes, accessories, furniture, home accessories, kids stuff, lots of great food, music, beer and more. Basically something for everyone, and besides all that it's a beautiful place to hang out.  An extremely well organised event by Priya Jagat, the lady behind it all. There is surely a lot to learn on great management from her.

Decorate Me Pretty was a happy baby at the Vanity Fair with it's cute corner by the Verandah, all thanks to Priya who helped us carry out everything smoothly. A sneak peek into our booth...

(Please excuse the clarity due to the angle of sunlight....I phone doesn't do all the work itself after all!)

What did we take home? Well there is a huge list keeping in mind that this was our first experience, but to name the important few... Lots of love and appreciation from people, a big reminder of what a great great support your family can be, the realization of how much love we have for our hometown Chandigarh and last but definitely not the least, the happiness that comes out of doing what you absolutely love...

Some high resolution shots of our products coming up soon, in the meanwhile do write in and let us know what you think of the collection (from whatever you can see in the pictures!)...looking forward to hearing from you.

All Images: Decorate Me Pretty

Good Homes and Us...

The lovely people at Good Homes organised a great afternoon for us, the bloggers clan, at the hip Shiro this February. Creative & interesting people, beautiful ambiance, yummy food & drinks & lots of fun chitter-chatter...what's not to love? 

Images by Good Homes & Priti

Be it school, college or the B school, I'v hardly ever got to be in a place where all the people share the same interests or speak the same language, which in this case is of interiors (that I mostly speak to myself in my head). But Good Homes made it possible by getting us all together at one place and Oh! what fun it was.

A big thank you to all the pretty girls from the Good Homes Team ie. Ronitaa the editor, Dipti from the brand team, Simran & Vineeta from the design & features team and Parul from Shiro. You guys rock!

And the beautiful people from the blog world ie Bhavna, Rajee, Shalini, Priti, Laxami, Aarti & Prachi, it was so much fun to meet you all and hope to catch up with you guys again soon.

There are a lot of new things happening at Decorate Me Pretty's end and I have some interesting stuff to share with you all very soon, so please stay put till my next post....cya soon!

Reminiscing

As I write my first post of this brand new year, I reminisce a bit about the bygone and dream a little of the times to come. With a million thoughts and plans in my mind about the whole year ahead of me, I take the liberty of editing and quoting lines from a poem by T.S. Elliot to suit the occasion...

"In the year gone by I found words I never thought to speak, in streets I never thought I would visit. For last year's words belong to last year's language, and next year's words await another voice..."

True that 11th of the first month of the year is not exactly a typical date for new beginnings, but then there are all sorts of people in the world and some of them aren't called late bloomers for nothing. 

Last year brought a couple of important 'firsts' in my life. It started with the first big interiors exhibit I got to attend with my best friend and I still remember how excited we were to be there, like little kids left alone in Disneyland. Following this was the mesmerizing trip to beautiful Prague. As it is it felt like a dream to be there , but then there was Designblok! the design festival of Prague that happened to fall just at the right time. 

Today I'd like to take you on a tour...think of it as a gallery display of designs that I picked out for you while I was in Prague. Enjoy!

Enter: Designblok - Living

Enter: Designblok - Lights

                                                                  

Enter: Designblok - Kids

    

    

A cute little shop the I fell in love with...

Do not miss the quirky lamp and the pretty ceramics

Would it be appropriate to say that I might have virtually 'curated' this collection? Well who's the judge here when 'To Curate' seems to be the most liberally used term of this era! 

I'll leave you with this picture of Prague city in all it's beauty at dusk, until I see you next...