It’s your home. Pull it together.

I’m in love…

…with this guy.

I’ve loved the cardboard taxidermy trend since its beginning, and now I finally have a tiny one of my own! I picked up my awesome mini in an awesome hipster curiosity shop in Amsterdam.

I suction cupped him to an empty frame I’d painted turquoise, then found a sweet hanging vase at antique store to keep him company.

(To get your own wall pet, check out Cardboard Safari.)

It always seems to me people who have fabulous fashion sense should also have super decorating powers, and vice versa. You know, style all around.

But I’m proof it doesn’t automatically work that way. Trying to put together an interesting outfit wears me out (pun not intended because mine never are). My style sensibilities seem to all be funneled into decorating walls and floors and bookcases.

So instead of showing off some eye-catching outfit combo I’ve created…

Look at the clothes rack I styled!

Our 100+ year old Prague flat is a little lacking in drawers and closets, as in, there are zero of either. In lieu of a closet, we have a free-standing wardrobe. While my husband and I could cram all our hanging clothes in together, sharing is overrated.

After collecting photographs of fabulous hanging clothes racks on my Closet Dreams pinterest page, I saw the potential of an open clothes rack to be functional decor. Now my husband’s clothes are in the wardrobe, and mine are on a standing clothes rack.

I treated it like its own little design challenge, trying to style it to be something I enjoyed looking at.

I added my doily art in an unexpected place.

And threw a sheep skin down for a glam shoe mat. Voila! I have my own little boutique in the corner of our bedroom. Now I just need someone to take me shopping so I can fill it with fab outfits!

I don’t know whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing that now that I’ve made them, I don’t want to give them away?

Check out my article on expats.cz, where I show three easy ideas for handmade gifts!

And if you like the map ornament designs, you can print the pattern from this pdf: 

Free printable pattern download

I always figure I’m lucky if I can get food on the table at all. To make the table pretty on top of that? Well, that’s just too much work.

Then again, I do prefer decorating to cooking any day. So I was thrilled to be asked to write an article for holiday table decorations for the Prague expatriate website, expats.cz.

From now on I think I need to wrangle someone else to do the cooking, and I’ll do the tablescaping. These are just a peek of the three designs I created. See the full tablescapes here!

Dear Mum,

Thanks for sharing your fabric scraps. There’s only one thing more fun than getting fabric scraps in the mail: using fabric scraps to spell out sweet nothings on pillowcases.

Dear Husband,

I wouldn’t stitch a lie.

The thing is, castles are overrated.

They’re either cold and dark (Medieval), or gaudy and overdone (Renaissance). But I suppose it’s a good thing. Otherwise, my childhood fantasies of becoming a princess would just be rekindled with every visit to a castle, and I just don’t think my husband could handle an overgrown princess wanna-be.

However, I did spot some beauts at the Palace of Versailles during our recent jaunt to Paris. My favorite:

This taupe and turquoise chair. Seriously! I’ll take it.

My second favorite:

An emerald green stool set against a pale blue room trimmed in frilly white. Delightful, I say.

And black and white tile floors running through a long, stone-arched corridor? Good call, fancy palace designers.

There was certainly plenty of eye-candy, too. So though I wouldn’t plan them into my next home, the little-girl princess in me couldn’t help but love the blingy door hinge and all the fabulous chandeliers.

So Versailles, let me know when you plan an estate sale and I’ll be by for a few things. Merci.

I’m red with excitement! Okay, my literal redness is from an allergic reaction after broccoli beef at lunch (what the heck… first food allergy at nearly-30?). But my figurative redness is from my delight over being featured on Potter + Butler’s podcast, This, I Celebrate.

Potter + Butler is an adorable little company run by two rather adorable friends, Emily and Carrie, who make adorable handmade party goods. I discovered them when they re-posted my DNA garland at Christmas time.

I love their sweet party garland.

And I double-love their mini garland for cakes! Or donuts, which kind of makes me chuckle, and crave powdered donuts.

Emily and Carrie were inspired by NPR’s This, I Believe series, and started their own podcast series, This, I Celebrate. It’s a “project of good cheer, … designed to engage us all in the joy, energy, and merriment of celebration through sharing our celebration stories with others.”

And they asked me to contribute! So I wrote up a little sumpin’, went back in the closet with my microphone, and recorded a couple of my thoughts on celebration.

Listen to my This, I Celebrate guest “appearance” here. Hope you likes it!