Happy Birthday D' !!!

Have a fabulous Birthday Husband Dear !!! 

Thank you for always being there for me ...Love You..!!!

Happy Diwali ..!!!

May the festival of lights illuminate your life,

and bring the shower of glory, prosperity, happiness,

health and peace !!

Have a Happy and Safe Diwali !!!

For the Garden ~ From Shopo.in ...

     By now, I am sure that most the bloggers and non-bloggers would have heard of the great online shopping website Shopo. For those who donot know, Shopo is a market place for Indian handicrafts and designer products. Be it apparel or home decor products or jewellery , they have items in almost every category one can imagine !!! If you are looking for something unique and Indian, then this is definitely the place to be. It is also one of my favorite online shopping sites that I frequently visit, and the first thing I look for is their latest garden products. So, when Shopo asked me to feature some of their products, naturally I accepted, and I wanted to do the post on one of my favorite topics- Gardening !!!

 

Here are my favorite picks from the Garden Section of Shopo.in ... Hope you like them as well.. ;-) ;-)

 

 Quirky Watering Cans from An Indian Summer .

 Handmade Bird Houses from Elan - Love the little metal bird on top...

  Metal Railing Planters in bright colors from Green Essence .

Garden markers from Elan ... Btwn.. Who does not love chalkboard works ??  

 Jungle Fever Collection of terracotta planters from Nature Nurturer .

 Pretty Mini Planter from An Indian Summer ... Looks like a pineapple right ?

 Metallic Planters and Garden Mushroom from Green Somethings ...  

 Write on me Planters from Poppadum Art .

 

Note : This is not a paid review or feature. All Image Copyrights belong to Shopo . You can visit the Shopo website here and follow Shopo on facebook here.

DIY : Table centerpiece with Seed Pods ....

     Have you ever collected seed pods from your morning walks ? Well, I have many a times, when I was in my childhood days or may be even later.. ! Guess, if you are inspired after reading this post, you would be back to collecting seed pods, like I do now..  ;-) ;-) .. !!

 

Seed pods as such or painted   can either be arranged in a tray or paired with candles or any other interesting objects to create simple and easy centerpieces...!!  Here I have used seed pods in different shapes from Carao (Pink Shower Tree), Bauhinia and Rubber seeds ... Pearl Metallic colors (from Fevicryl Hobby colors)  were used to paint the seed pods.We painted one side, left it to dry and then painted the other side. It just takes a few hours for the whole pod to dry and the painting can be completed within minutes.

 

P.S : Anyways I have to admit that this is my  mom's idea... We both tried this together at my parent's place, when I had been there for a short stay..!! May be this is where I get my creativity from...  ;-) ;-)

Seed Pods of various shapes ... 

Seed pods - After painting with metallic colors...  Just love the rustic matte finish

given by  metallic colors ... !!  

Rubber seeds arranged in a glass bowl... Simple nd' beautiful !!!

Looks even more good, when paired with a candle.. !!

 

 

Seed pods - Arranged in different bowls, different  combinations...



Won't this look beautiful on the center table ?



You can try some quirky designs too...or use bright colors.. like this... !!

 All Images : Mine. Copy right belongs to Liven Things Up.

 

Bye, until I see  you next  !!

I am linking this to the Made With Love party at Colours Dekor.

Gardening in Small Spaces ~ Simple Vertical Garden Ideas !!!

     A couple of weeks back, when I had been to a nursery that I haunt at times, I found these beautiful vertical gardening concepts and I simply had to share them with you all !! Vertical gardening solutions can be very useful when there is not enough space at a home to spare for a garden.  

Idea #1 : A wooden mesh or a wire mesh can be used to house planters. These semicircular planters have two holes at the back and can be nailed or tied to the mesh. This is a great solution if you do not like hammering nails to the walls. These planters can also be fastened to fences, grills etc., What a lovely idea isn’t it ?

 Planters fastened to a mesh made of Bamboo stems ....!!!!

A fern plant in a wall sconce planter .... !!!

Idea #2 : These lovely colorful planters from ‘Options’  are available in 9 different colors . They can either be fixed to the wall or can be used as regular planters. They have matching drip plates as well . The approximate price of these planters along with the plates is ~100. These planters are available at Green Sentei , Shakambari Gardens , Odyssey etc., 

 There is a transparent clamp that is available to fix the planter to the wall.

Love the colorful planters lined up on the wall .. !! 

Idea #3 : A vertical plant stand made of metal or wood, used to hang colorful hanging pots is also a good space saving option.

Vertical Plant Stand made of bamboo stems ...!!

The Hook with which the pot is hung is seen here in the picture ... !!

Love these purple flowers.... yellow and purple form a great combination ...!!

This is nowhere related to vertical gardening , but I simply had to post the picture of this multi-tiered planter that has many varieties of plants in it… ;-) ;-).

Hope these simple ideas inspired you enough to create your own vertical garden at home. If you do try out something like this, send the pictures to liventhingzup@gmail.com - I would be delighted to see them ;-) ;-) .

Stylish & Sophisticated Look of the Good Homes April Issue !!

Hi Friends ! Hope you are having a wonderful weekend !! Have you guys seen the April issue of the Good Homes Magazine? The latest hit on the stands is the voluminous 4th Anniversary Indian Edition of Good Homes. The magazine's pages are color-coded into three main sections :-   Market Place , Art of Living and Inside Stories.  The interesting part of the magazine is the distinct 'With Love' section where Good Homes'  pals  have designed special presents for the magazine's anniversary edition. However, the highlights and my personal favorites from this issue would be the 'VIBGYOR' section where accessories in every hue of the rainbow were displayed,  posh and plush styling tips shared in the 'Grand Appearances' & 'Return to Royalty' sections and the real home stories shared in the 'Inside Stories' section.  

Being a subscriber of Good Homes, I would say that the  editor Ronitaa and her team deserve a pat on the back for their efforts to bring such a tremendous change in the recent issue of the magazine's layout and design.  It is nice to see that the team has thought of bringing renovations in the magazine's look as well rather than just concentrating on the content to keep things fresh !!

Here are a few pages from the magazine :

A sample page from the VIBGYOR section .... - Love the Ceramic Horse !!!  

A page out of the 'Art of Living - Grand Appearances section' ...

Isn't the bird cage lovely ?

A page out of the 'Art of Living - Return to Royalty section' ...

Tips to bring in the palatial feel at home !!!

Images via Good Homes India

In short, the April Issue of Good Homes Indian Edition is a stunner !!! So, go grab this revamped April Anniversary issue of Good Homes to indulge in breathtaking pictures, to get stylish decor tips, and to participate in giveaways worth 4 lakhs  . You can also visit Good Homes on Facebook here and participate in the exciting contests going on at their FB page.

Happy Easter !!!

 Easter Vignette at My Home- Some wooden eggs on artifical moss

Image Copyright belongs to Liven Things Up

- Please do not re-use without written permission.

Wish you and your family a very Happy Easter !!! Take care and have a fun-filled weekend, until I see you guys again.

I am linking this to the Weekly Story-75 at Colours Dekor. 

100 posts and a My Memories Giveaway .....

Hi friends, How have you been ? Guess, this is the longest I have stayed away from blogger so far... My sincere apologies... !! ... Well, I have completed 100 posts so far, and I am back for good to celebrate this milestone with a Giveaway ... ;-) ;-) .... !! This time I have My Memories Suite,  a $40 worth digital scrapbooking software   for the giveaway.

I have tried their software out and it so easy - The software enables you to finish the work in no time... !! All you have to do is select the layout, drag and drop the photos - They fit themselves perfectly well within the layout. There is no need to adjust the photos width and height which makes the work much easier. Also, there are tons of backgrounds, embellishments that you can choose and  be creative - I love their scroll flourishes and their painting photo effects which I have used in the pictures seen below. 
Just visit the videos here to know more about this software.

The guidelines for the giveaway are (Please leave separate comments for each entry to increase your chance of winning the giveaway) :

1. For the first entry, Please visit their site : www.MyMemories.com and chose your favorite digital scrapbooking kit, then leave a comment below.

2.  For the second entry , become a follower of my blog and leave a comment below. If you are already a follower just say so by leaving a comment.

3. For the third entry, follow My Memories on facebook here  or their blog here. Leave a comment below mentioning the same.

4. For the fourth entry , blog about this giveaway, or mention this giveaway on your facebook page with the link to this post. Leave a comment below with the URL to your blog page or facebook page.

The giveaway starts today and ends on 8th April 2012. One winner will be chosen using random.org and will be announced by 10th April 2012. - So be sure to check if you have won and if so, leave your email and contact details so that I can get back to you.

Thanks so much to the Liz and the My Memories Team,   for contacting me about this giveaway and good luck to all the participants !! 

{ Update : The giveaway winner is Sunayana of SK Art Studio }

P.S : The comments that did not follow the above rules and comments that were posted after 8th April were not counted for the giveaway .
 

Itz' Festival Time Blog Party - Features ...

Hi friends, Thank You everyone for the excellant response to the Itz' Festival Time Blog Party and for making last year's party a huge success ;-) ;-) ..
Here are a few features from the 2011' party !!

Love the curly willow branches placed in brown urns at her front porch by Kitty of Miss Kopy Kat blog...

Warm and welcoming mantle decor from A Delightsome Life blog ..

A DIY halloween wreath with detailed instructions from the Crafty Scientist ..

Someday, I would love to have a mantel at my home... so that I can decorate it every season... Gorgeous, isn't it.. ? Fall mantel from 'Adventures in Decorating' ...

Simple and beautiful halloween hanging decor from Patty ...

Beautiful and colorful porch with Halloween touches from Nayana of Cherish Dream Live ...

Framed wall art for halloween from Color Canopy ...

A creative idea shared by Neha to make lamp shades from paper in wine glasses ...

Shruti's traditional decor with divas and flowers ..

And, can you believe that Debbie has a blog entirely dedicated to Christmas... Go check out her blog 'A Debbie-Dabble Christmas' for christmas decor inspirations....

A glimpse of the pink and silver christmas decor by Patty of Colours Dekor... I love those angels...

All images copyrights  belong to the respective blogs mentioned below each picture.

Thank You once again for making the party a big hit... !! Bye, until I see you again ;-) ;-) .