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!

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.

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.

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!

I’ve also decided to give in to my love of stitched linens and collect a few, despite the fact that I never use table linens. I found these hip, hand-stitched yellow napkins, along with another armful of treasures, at a fantastic antique/junk store outside of Prague.

Well, my collecting paid off when I wrapped a tin can in one of my I-don’t-know-if-I-really-need-this finds.

It was super simple: I just wrapped a tin can with my cloth napkin, popped some flowers in, and set my eyes a’gazin’ on my adorable can-vase.

We took a trip to my new favorite place on earth this weekend.

It’s half antiques, and half junk. I go for the junk. Twenty dollars, and twenty frozen fingers and toes later (it was 32°F and there’s no heat inside), here’s what I dug up.

Meet my new mug collection.

And say hello to my new espresso and teacup collection.

J’adore these leafy saucers. They’re not a matching set with my teal teacups, but I did that on purpose. Funkier = funner.

And I could only find the one of these little lovelies, but it’s delightful as my spoon rest! Yes, delightful.

But this little number may be my favorite. It has reignited my love for pink and purple.

This turquoise tin was a no-brainer.

And I dug through a pile of linens for just a few more bits of awesome.

An embroidered linen napkin.

A fun green and white crocheted… doily?

And some awesome little yellow numbers I wrapped around a tin can for a charming vase.

I know one day I’ll have to mess with getting all these treasures back home, but it’ll be worth it. How are they not the perfect souvenir of our time here with stamps like this? And all of this only cost $20.

Now if I can only figure out how to get this one home. How awesome would it be in a living room??

But last week I picked up two second-hand lamps (both Ikea), and my life is turning around.

The standing lamp in the living room is like a bright little miracle of non-overhead light in the evenings.

And this heavier-than-you’d-imagine black beauty in the entryway is a welcome welcome.

I also love textiles and rugs, so this little puppy is a gem. I found him at an antique show for $35.

Well worth it for that fabuloso pattern, and uber soft chenille!

Slowly, but surely, I’m filling the blank canvas that is our sparse white flat. And it makes me happy.

Solution: Wait, rewind a sec.

When a friend invites me (us) for dinner, I like to bring at least a bottle of wine. If it’s a particularly special occasion — maybe the first time at a new friend’s house, or a bonafide dinner party — I like to bring a little something extra.

A couple weeks ago I’d (of course) waited until the last minute to come up with a hostess gift. So on my way home I bought a spring bulb from the flower stand, but the bright blue plastic it came in wasn’t going to cut it. And I do love jars, so I had plenty in the cabinet.

A bit of my favorite wrapping paper and twine,

and a tiny painted heart (one of my husband’s spontaneous ideas that I hate because it wasn’t mine, and love because it was brilliant), and I had a sweet, simple hostess gift.

Good thing, because some serious Japanese deliciousness awaited us. Here I am wearing my concentrating face, learning to be a Takoyaki chef. Apparently my husband was wearing his, too, on my behalf. It worked. They were delicious.

I have to say, I was pretty happy with how easily the gift wrap creative juices started flowing once I committed to spending just that little bit of extra time. Check it.

The key to a hip collection of boxes is that no two are the same.

4 Simple Tricks for Impressive Gift Wrap

1. Mix it up. Choose two coordinating papers, and wrap boxes in each of them.

2. Break it up. Add interest by putting a band of the opposite paper across the middle of some packages.

3. Go simple. Again, the key is variety. And simple is a good variety! Especially if you can do it with just one little twist, like quadrupling ribbon (twine… my favorite) before tying a basic bow.

4. Go funky. Get creative with trying to use the opposite paper in lieu of a bow. Here, we have a bloomin’ flower of brown paper. You can even curl most paper (gently) with scissors, just like you would ribbon.

Of course, all that pride in my work, and the real show stopper was the bit of orange I threw in just for fun. Ah, well. Can’t beat peanut butter cups. And all-in-all, it was a pretty fab 30th birthday… you can see the whole thing here, in fact: Dennis Turns 90!

There’s nothing more magical than a craft out of toilet paper rolls. Right?

Well, slap some glitter on, and anything’s magical.

To make this star tree-topper, I cut 1″ wide strips from toilet paper rolls and flattened them to created a point at each end. Then
I used a string to fasten nine together for the inner star, and glued nine more around the outside.

I finished it off with a nine-year-old’s job of glue and glitter, so it would catch the eye a bit more. (The coiled twine in the very center is just for fun… made it with Elmer’s.)

I’m pleasantly surprised that my trashy, handmade tree topper (and other ornaments) feels rather vintage and rustic. I like.