I came home to two different packages from Amazon. The books on the left are a gift from Sarah G. (thank you!) and will doubtless be great fun. The ones on the right… well, I’m still doing research on love, relationships, marriage, etc.
Ranunculus
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Living, Room
I think I can call the living room area finished now. Ikea had this lovely and comfortable armchair on sale. Add a couple of end tables for party drinks and nibbles, and we’re done. I’ve already had a few sets of dinner guests over, and all pronounce the daybed/sofa very comfortable.
The painting on the left, by the way, is by Bombay artist Rashmi Dogra; the one on the right is by my daughter, Rossella.
The dining area is now spiffied up with a piece of ikat material bought on one of my trips to Delhi, and I hung a red and black Madras cotton scarf (actually from Madras, probably, but purchased at Fabindia) over the floor lamp to camouflage its ugly wires.
The entryway was simply too dark, especially as I propose to fill it with photographs. That was easily solved with a $5 strand of twinkle lights, long enough to string along the ceiling from an outlet in the kitchen.
Home Update
Today Ikea delivered a queen-sized memory foam mattress and “support” (Ikea’s version of a box spring). I also bought additional wooden legs to raise it up a bit (hoping to be able to stash suitcases underneath), but couldn’t put them on myself. Well, I could, but it will require two people to flip the support onto the legs once they’re attached. Eventually I’ll get help with that. In the meantime, the new mattress seems comfortable and at least I’m higher up off the floor.
This meant that I could move the single mattress I’d been sleeping on into the living room and onto a support of its own so that it can function as a daybed/sofa. But the wooden legs apparently can’t be attached to this kind of support frame. Oh, well, back to Ikea to return them – I need to go anyway to buy a few more things: two more small bookshelves for the bedroom (especially since one has been repurposed into a bedside table), a couple of small tables for the living area, maybe a big cozy armchair if I can find something I like at a price I want to pay right now.
In both photos you can see all the “cushion forms” that arrived in an close-to-exploding box the other day, now filling out all the cushion covers I bought on various trips to India. The red cover, bolster covers, and square cushions on the daybed are a silk gaddi (throne) set I bought in Bangalore a couple of years ago and hadn’t used til now.I’m going to have to find some way to keep the bedcover tidy, though – it bunches and wrinkles as soon as you sit on it.
And, yes, I have now become one of those annoying people whose bed is littered with cushions which will all end up on the floor at night. I have no idea why, except that they go with the bedspread!
Also note the twinkle lights on the window. I like them, they make me happy, so there.
Seeing Rainbows
^ top: rhubarb!
It’s a gorgeous spring day in San Francisco, so I walked over to the farmers’ market at the Ferry terminal, saw lots of amazingly beautiful produce, and bought a a little of it.
^Honey in a rainbow of flavors.
^ Flowering borage (yes, I had to ask) and tubers for tasting.
^ I don’t actually like eating purple potatoes, but they are awfully pretty.
^ The Rancho Gordo heirloom bean stand had this wonderful tub of “touching beans” – don’t you just want to run your fingers through all the shiny smoothness? I could see having something like this on my coffee table for visitors to play with.
