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Le Bonheur & DIY Magic: Turn the Ugly Black Duck into a Gazelle N'ayez pas peur du bonheur I've been away for too long, living up the days and events that have just passed, so let me first catch up all I've been up to, the nows, & the things to come. How pleasant is it to write a blog post while having a scrumptious breakfast outside of your room's window? The few drops of rain on my macbook don't bother me, nor does the dust under my bare feet; soon it will be completely wet, & the smell of trees and sand will rise in the air -- Oh how I love that smell ♥ Happy belated Eid, Happy National Day, Happy Holidays, - Yes, that's how long I've been gone. At work, to say that it has been hectic would be an understatement - so much to deliver before end of the year, it's that busy book-closing time of the year. On the personal spectrum it has also been busy, a series of explorations and discoveries - pleasant ones for the most part. I've also been quite busy with with latest horse acquisition: Robinhood. A very pleasant boy who doesn't seem to mind jumping obstacles up to 145cm so far. My living room at home still looks like the after-effect of an atomic bomb, catalogs are still lying everywhere, I'm still decorating my château one room at a time; so far, there's the blue room, the dusty rose, the taupe, and the living room of course which -the more I look at, the more hesitation I feel towards execution of current palette- Yesterday my first order was taken, I decided I would execute plans for 1 room, observe the quality of stitching and upholstery before I give a green light for the other 2 rooms, it would be a lot easier to fix one thing that goes wrong than 10. In the meantime, I'm still contemplating the colors, fabrics, & textures at home. Mom brought over a huge piece of voile that will come in handy for the bathroom vertical windows and the servants' quarter outside, perhaps even for the extra exterior building which I intend to convert into a Gîte I've also been enjoying getting creative with things that have a chance for beauty. Let's face it, we're not surrounded by beauty all the time, in fact, not even most of the time, but nearly almost everything around us has a shot for beauty, the potential to be enhanced an look better. Those were exactly my thoughts when I eyed the black photo frame at IKEA with a giant yellow price tag AED.120 -- It looked like it would make a nice bathroom mirror, after a substantial amount of work, of course. Without hesitation, I bagged it into my trolley and headed away to the cashier. My next stop would be ACE Hardware.. I picked up the one and only plastic-specific paint can they had, the only one that seemed to work anyway, and the color was a light shade of pistache. Next, I've underlined the frame with newspaper to save my tile floor, & painted gradually, one layer at a time, occasionally pulling the paint can farther to capitalize on the original dark color of the frame and create an 'antique' effect by spraying a lighter color on top in an uneven way..      I then had Rasheed stop by a mirror-cutting shop to make a piece perfectly suited to fit the picture frame, et voilaaaa! I now have a gorgeous mirror that will hang in the washroom on the ground floor of my château in France ♥♥♥ I have to say that the final product was sooo much more than I had anticipated lol, I was so happy with the result that I went and bought another piece, recreated the same thing -though not identical- but would be happy to hang it in the gîte nonetheless The former experience encouraged me to explore, and while I was walking through HomeCenter, I couldn't help but notice a very very ugly 1-bulp sorry-excuse-for-a-chandelier which you'll see below:  Lightening struck, and in my head I could allllllmost see it perfectly beautified ♥ When I asked Serena to buy it, she gave me a hesitant second look as though she couldn't believe I had just asked her to take home something so ugly, but she did anyway. Now, think ACE hardware again -- this time, metal-specific paint, color of choice? Khaki.   I had also sent Serena & Co. to brush through the lighting shops of Abu Dhabi in search for chandelier beads and crystals, luckily, she found a couple of shops that were willing to sell. I bought 500 pieces of the small beads, and several larger pieces (the larger pieces from Dubai) -- I made strands of beads to beautify the basic bland and boring metal frame, & added the final pieces -- the outcome? Spectacularly pleasant experience, and prettyyyyyyful mini-chandelier that will go into the small laundry area of the château by the kitchen. I ♥ it! Have a prettyful rest of the day x Labels: Deco, Domestic Goddess, La Dolce Vita, Music, Pony Tales, Videos $11 in my moola box | link | email this post |
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