A wedding anniversary, a birthday, and the day for professing love world wide - all fall in the month of February. In other words, the house is smelling fresh of flowers and bouquets all round the month.

My husband used to be once called a ‘florist’ dearly by friends for the amount of money he spent (umm, invested!) in buying flowers. I’m not fond of red roses, so they never find a place in our flower arrangements. Rajnigandha is a personal favorite. Yesterday was Valentine’s Day and much to my surprise, this year, my husband walked in with a huge bouquet containing a dozen Rajnigandha sticks nestled in pink and white roses held together by lavenders.

How do you forgive/forget and bury a argument? Flowers have always done the trick for me; they are also a cheap and instant way of decorating and bringing cheer into a home. As the bouquet was huge, I split into two today and filled the vases.

Rajnigandha

Rajnigandha sits atop the center table in a beautiful glass vase.

Roses in a copper vessel

Roses

While the roses are in a new copper vessel. I picked up this copper vessel (usually used for last rites in the South or for drinking water) from a large stainless steel retail store called Ratna Stores in Trichy for Rs.110. I’m into thrift decoration these days - in tune with the times. If you’d agree, most magazines last year, screamed of headlines such as decorating on a budget or how not to let recession get in the way of doing up your home.

I add a little sugar to the water and change the water every day. This way it lasts for 4 days. How was your Valentine’s Day? What’s your trick for making fresh flowers last longer?

What do you do when you’re feeling low some day? I eat a sinful brownie (a BIG one and don’t you remind me of the calories) and indulge my senses with beautiful pictures (of home accessories of course, what were you thinking?!).  FCML came to my rescue today and though it’s been long since I got over the down-and-out mood, I can’t get myself to close the site. So, here’s what I’ll do - share a few pictures that I’ve been enjoying and then hit the sack.

Have you ever seen a clock like this? I have not, which is way this figures on top of my list. It’s a good one for the kitchen or the dining area. But I would have liked a chrome finish and a smooth stem, without the bristles, on the spoons and forks.

Spoon and Fork Clock

I’m itching to make a colorful clock like this for my son’s room. My DIY antennae is already working overtime figuring out the best way to get started on this project. Stylish numericals, different colors, and numbers - what more does one want?

Kids' room clock

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Klove, a Delhi-based design store, has an exquisite collection of vases in a wide array of materials ranging from hand-blown glass and stone to wood, ceramic, and metal. An impressive collection (time-waster alert! May I warn that I didn’t close the window until I was done viewing all the 80 pictures).  I have to admit, however, that the stone/wood range didn’t impress me as much as the glass and ceramic ones.  Great styling with a good color combination. Worth checking out. Klove’s products are apparently available at select retail outlets in major metros.

Vases from Klove

Image courtesy: Klove

Thank you for all your comments and offline messages asking when posting would resume.  I hadn’t planned on being away for so long; I had to leave at a short notice to my parents’ that left me with little time to schedule posts in advance.

This post is a collection of assorted images from this three-week long trip. My parents’ home, just like any other, is a treasure house of memorabilia and collectibles accumulated over the years from their stay in the Middle East.  Many of them are over a decade old, but still good enough to be reused and spruce up one’s mood.

This stainless steel vase is a favorite. Place a bouquet of fresh flowers, or plant a needlepoint ivy and imagine the difference it can make to a room.

Stainless steel vase

Chinese art - made from shells

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Want to know a li’l secret on how to uplift your mood instantly? Get a bunch of fresh flowers and place it on your center table or dining table. It almost always works wonders for me.  There was a time when three to four sticks of  rajnigandha always adorned my treasured glass vase, only to be replaced with a fresh bunch after three days. These flowers smell best at nights so it used to be such a refreshing feeling coming back home every evening after work.

Vases add to the visual appeal that contain these colorful flowers. You can stretch your imagination to use a lot of common objects as vases from old drinking glasses, porcelain to silver/brass ware and earthen pots.

However, if you are looking for something classy, then here they are. My picks:

Silver vases

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