My domain ..!!

The earlier kitchen was too tiny... the new extension will give double the space... Now all I have to do, is figure out how to fit in all the components to utilize space to the max...!!!

The kitchen window.... Hopefully will provide enough natural light. A sunny kitchen is most important...

Another nook that will be my own... my work-nook with the bay window...can't wait to see it finished.

The stages...!!

First - the demolition - the doorway of the kitchen gets widened... now we should be able to get a fridge through, easily !!!

Off with the old....!! the mosaic is cut out in neat little blocks ..maybe we can find some use for it later !!!

The columns for the first floor extension are being readied..

View of the ground-floor extended kitchen from the first floor..............

....and from below...

Sigh... so much more work to be done.... the waiting is tedious...

Some pics of things that appeal ...

I like the gate... clean lines and no fuss... i especially can do without the scrolls and flowery patterns on the gates that are usually seen everywhere...

I would love to use these natural tiles as backsplash for the kitchen ...have not decided on the size or the shape of the tiles, though...!!!

Wonder why mosaics went out of fashion... I really like this one ...

Love the colour and the pattern of the tiles...
Want this tile for my kitchen floor.. love the colour, the glossy surface which is easy to clean and best of all, no two tiles are alike. This is natural stone....but all said, I may finally come across yet another great tile... it is very difficult to make up our minds ...!!!

So watch this space to see what we end up with...

Orange and cinnamon cake with Orange Icing

This is a Rachel Allen recipe with slight tweaking from me. It was quite easy to make, and the taste is amazing. I will definitely be making this cake again .

Butter - 100 g

Eggs - 2

Orange zest - finely grated, from one orange.

Castor sugar - 100 g ( or 1/2 cup)

Icing sugar - 100 g (Bit less than 1/2 cup)

Plain flour - 1 cup (125 g)

Cinnamon powder - 1 pinch (the powder I have has a very strong flavor so a little goes a long way )

Baking powder - 1 tsp

The cake

Preheat the oven to 180 C in a conventional oven. In a convection oven, 160 C will do.

Melt the butter. Grease and flour the cake tine and line the base with butter paper if needed.

Note - whenever icing sugar is used, take care to sift it before adding to make sure there are no lumps.

Whisk the eggs with the orange zest, caster sugar and the icing sugar till soft and fluffy. Add the melted butter to this, making sure it is near normal temperature.

Sift in the flour, cinnamon powder and the baking powder. Fold the entire mixture gently. Do not beat .

Pour into the cake tin, smooth the top, bake for about 45 to 55 minutes or more, till the skewer comes out clean.

Take the cake from the tin and cool it on a wire rack before icing the cake.

The icing

Icing sugar - 100 g (sift )

Freshly squeezed orange juice - 1 to 2 tbsp

Mix in the orange juice gradually, till the icing can be drizzled on the cake, but not runny. Make sure the cake is properly cooled or else the icing will not set.

The process of preparation is very easy... the difficult part is waiting for the cake to bake, cool, and icing before waiting to dig into it ...!!! Th aroma of orange and cinnamon is irresistible and the fresh taste is amazing ...

Try it and let me know if you agree ....

Demolition site....

Right now, this is what our house looks like... the back wall has been completely taken down, the floor has been elevated 4 feet and there is debris and construction material heaped everywhere...!!

Our home, standing empty, and a bit forlorn, and needing a lot of work ...

The debris ..of which there is an unending supply, though there is a lorry coming in to collect more, everyday!!!

The ground floor, with what used to be yellow and green bedrooms on either side, and the kitchen in the middle... The artwork on my sister-in law's kitchen walls is mine, and matched the tiled backsplash near the stove.

The first floor is ours....which had been rented out for the past years.

It has been so long since i blogged regularly, that it seems like almost another life...and yet , it is not easy to sever this link as it connected me to so many brilliant people. Right now, priorities are in doing up our home, and the research is taking up most of my waking hours....

So right now, I just had the urge to do a post and the rather bad pics I have put up are a stain-glass painting and a tanjore painting. The first one was done the traditional way, with the help of a tracing pattern..so it is not my favorite of the series...

This one is absolutely beautiful, and it was done with the help of my instructor, who is the mother of two of my friends... I have not yet attempted another one of it's kind and this was done 10 years ago!!!

As for now, art is mainly on my mind, and procrastination being another 'art' I practice, it is remaining only in my mind... I guess it is past time I did something about that ..oh well...just have to wait till my daughter resumes going to school after her break ...!!

Renovation dilemmas...

Our home in Chennai is ready for a big renovation, so all creative energies are being channeled into doing up Our dream home. It is not easy to go with just one thing, given the endless varieties of fixtures, fittings, tiles, paints, furnishings etc available in the market today...

Anyway, more than the fact that I cannot make up my mind about even something as basic as flooring... I would love to do up each room with a separate tile, while experts opine that it is better to stick with one so that the space looks bigger and more open.

And something in me balks at just buying stuff off the rack and fixing it here and there, since for me, bland never works as well as blend.

One thing I am absolutely in favour of, are things and colours that exude warmth and look timeless... not for me, the absolute modern and cutting edge ..(rather reminds me of sharp blades !!)

Gosh..so many choices to be made...

For someone who hates shopping, i absolutely adore visiting endless shops and showrooms for that perfect accessory for our home...

And I find that for someone who has an artistic outlook, I adore if something that appeals to me has a practical use as well...!!!!

I never realised that putting together a home would reveal more of myself too...!!!!

The type of rooms I would love to be in ....warm, cozy and I absolutely love the flooring..taken from this site.