Set Up a Beautiful Picnic, With Rajiv Surendra | HGTV Handmade

How does he make everything so aspirational and yet feel attainable??? Rajiv is a gift!

My husband and I lived in rural France for three months and he surprised me with a picnic like this with cheese and proscuitto and and baked bread and champagne in a field with a waterfall in the background and horses wandering near us (they belonged to local farmers). It was my birthday present and I loved it more than anything he's ever bought me. It was magical.

The world needs more humans like Rajiv. ❤

He’s just Old School. He has learned how things were done in a time when there were manners, and traditions, and social norms adhered to by the vast majority. I’ve come to realize that the very thing people scoff at now….self-control supported by the control of social culture….is what made things work much better in the past.  This idea of a picnic without plastic, devices, and the treat of eating outdoors, then spending some unhurried recreational time is how a picnic used to be. Nowadays we have to plan more intentionally because of those dang devices, because there are fewer places to go be outside casually, because most people don’t have the necessary picnic equipment on hand. I did take my kids on picnics when they were young.  We didn’t have a darling basket. I used a cardboard box that I’d wrapped in red and white gift wrap paper. It stored kitschy thrift store salt and pepper shakers, plastic tumblers, and paper plates. We had a huge tatami mat that had belonged to my grandma to sit on and we ate simple fare because that’s what kids like. We took boxed watercolors and paper, and everyone brought a book.  Actually, “nature journals” evolved from our picnics. By the time they were in middle school, we’d pack sandwiches and thermoses of soup and strike out for a nearby beach or woodland park to walk around and sketch and paint on the spur of the moment, often on school nights! Then we’d eat our simple dinner which seemed extra delicious because of the fresh air! Four out of five of my kids now do this with their own children occasionally. It’s free and relaxing and makes lovely memories. Except for that one time somebody stepped on a ground hornets nest. 😂 I wanted to share that on rainy afternoons we used to have picnics on the living room floor. Another favorite memory my now-adult kids frequently bring up is when we’d eat in odd places at home. I loved to bundle everybody up and have hot cocoa on the porch during snowfalls or set up card tables in front of the fireplace in the living room for dinner (especially when the Christmas tree was up in there). We ate in everybody’s bedroom 😳, in the basement, in the garage, under makeshift tarp tents in the backyard. Eating in weird places is so strangely exciting! Crafting, sleeping, playing board games, sewing and handwork, homework…it’s always special when you change things up. That’s the spirit of a picnic, no? Sorry for the epistle. Golly, do I love this channel!

I have my grandmothers picnic blanket and napkins that she hand sewed back in the 1940’s. It’s a treasure that I will pass on to my children.

Do i have to move to upstate New York to find people like him? What a gem!! Beautiful picnic, watercolors, sounds of nature, peace and serenity, simplicity. Leave the cell phones at home. Honestly, i just want a world full of Rajivs.

“No plaaastic!” I love it! 😂 I would love to go on a picnic with you, Rajiv! You are truly inspirational. ❤❤❤

Thanks Rajiv!!! I was on safari in India at Bandgavgarh Nature Reserve with two photographer friends. We settled near a watering hole when a tigress wondered in with her cubs. My friends went crazy snapping hundreds of photographs but I put my camera aside and decided to enjoy them with all my senses. Seeing the cubs maneuvering the water, going into it butt first and frolicking carelessly will always be etched in my memory. I agree with you, life is better when experienced first hand and not through a filter. Be well!!

This is how it was done when I was a child in the '50s. We didn't have plastic wrapping, we used wax paper. We didn't have plastic cutlery and plates so we took our proper cutlery and plates from the kitchen drawers and cupboards. We used a woollen blanket with a table cloth on the ground and then spent hours and days picking and shaking the bits of grass and plants from the wool. Til the next picnic. Now I'm in my 70s and I live in a wet and built part of the world. My favourite picnic these days is a carpet picnic or a table picnic, with a couple of friends. I lay it out with cloth napkins and my favourite plates. I use my brightly striped glasses that I bought years ago in a junk shop. I have a hand made cheese knife. The handle is made with layers of different coloured wood. So we talk, and laugh and enjoy the food and each other. At the end there is nothing to throw away. Thank you Rajiv for reminding me and for keeping the right way to have a picnic alive. Roll on summer!

I'm old enough that I remember when we'd travel when I was young in the (ahem) 1950s and early 1960s, the concept of 'fast food' just...didn't exist. we traveled with this gigantic silver metal insulated box (I was thinking that it was made by Coleman but everything they did was plaid) and my mom had fixed all the sandwiches and fruit and these cookie sort of things that she called 'fruit bars' but which I think were sort of a second cousin to fruit cake, really). We didn't have interstates at that time yet, so a trip that today takes about 3-4 hours took about 5-6 hours then, so that sort of travel was more like a safari. My mom would take her knitting and finish off whatever major sweater project she was working on. My sister and I would bring books and coloring books. Major undertaking!

You are truly a Renaissance Man ❤ You bring grace to even a simple picnic. Thank you for pausing to allow us to enjoy the beautiful natural symphony. Bliss.

I am not sure but I think I got that knife as a senior in high school in southern New Hampshire just before going to Wales for my first apprentiship. I also used it for cutting chedder cheese all over the UK as a yourg potter :) ... It has the perfect home ... G

I’m from Spain and have vintage family memorabilia spanning 150 years. Some of these things I use in my everyday life. My mother and grandmother’s nicer clothes, my late Dad’s books and cardigan, my greatgrandparents’ furniture. I love using them because it brings my ancestors back to life in a way.

We are more than twice your age, so we mostly like to eat our picnic at a picnic table, but absolutely agree with the principle of making it as beautiful and elegant as possible. Our linen tablecloth and napkins and beautiful equipment make some people laugh, but that's their loss.  Even for sandwiches to be eaten on a trail we still make sure virtually nothing is disposable, which is no big deal since you have to pack everything out with you anyway. Lightweight and permanent aren't incompatible at all.

I think all of Rajiv's recommendations first begin with removing stress. When I quit my 9 to 5 back in 2013 - the long commute in heavy traffic, the deadlines, the frustrations, the need to catch up on daily chores on the weekends - I suddenly found myself with time to make our living space beautiful and to cook. Now every night my husband and I have a candlelight dinner, using beautiful plates and candlesticks we had but never used when I worked and dinner was often just soup and sandwiches or takeout grabbed on the way home. Thanks for the reminder that lovely picnics are an option again.

Thanks Rajiv!!! I cannot even begin to tell you how inspiring you are to me!! I work at a very un-aesthetic place (Walmart lol) and i am trying to keep my home life as beautiful and truly rich as possible, not in a bougie way but a simple, clean and effortlessly luxurious way like you do things!!❤❤

Rajiv is the epitome of mindfulness and gratitude for life❤️

I need Rajiv to have his own tv show antiquing around the US giving the historic significance/ facts of the items he finds.

I watched this with my 4 year old son. We decided to go for a breakfast picnic tomorrow morning with our red and white gingham blanket. He gave your video a literal thumbs up and then requested a video about “taking a picnic in the snow”. 😊 great content as always.

I do this occasionally. I don't have a picnic basket, but I use a canvas shopping bag. I do take my dog, and a book. A thermos of tea, some fruit and a sandwich. Always real bowls, plates, glasses, mugs, a little knife that was my grandmother's. And linen napkins, and tablecloth because I can't sit on the ground - I use a picnic table in the park. It's lovely and I will do it today now that you've reminded me. Thanks, Rajiv.