It’s your home. Pull it together.

I found some great black and white striped wrapping paper recently, and have been trying to find the perfect way to use it. I think the whole roll of circus stripes will find a happy life in projects around the house, and here’s the first!

My new plant from a weekly outdoor market needed a worthy home.

And a ravioli can won the competition.

If you ever want to wrap a tin can with fun paper, I can offer you two tips:

1. Carefully remove the label so you can use it as a pattern.
2. Glue the paper to some cardstock, so it doesn’t get all wrinkly when you glue it to the can.

And voila! A happy can-pot.

Now if you’ll excuse me, dinner’s on.

My apologies if I repeat myself, but I still get so excited about my jewelry storage. I used to keep my jewelry in a very nice, slightly stuffy jewelry box. And the happiness of letting go of the jewelry box, and having my jewelry out in the open has not fizzled. It’s instant eye candy. So though I’ve probably reached my jewelry storage post quota (first here, second here, and third here), I have one more.

In our newest nest, I claimed the charmingly-unfinished windowsill in the corner of our bedroom.

I do believe deep windowsills are my new favorite.

I got this charming yellow box at a flea market this weekend for about $3! It’s even lined inside, as if awaiting the arrival of a tiny princess.

And anything with a lip continues to be my favorite way to organize and display earrings. From tea tin, to glass jar, to this ceramic compote made in “Czechoslovakia.”

So speaking of jewelry, allow me to segue to my latest fashion dilemma.

When my husband and I packed for our move, we only brought the essentials, and I only packed my favorite clothes. But perhaps in doing so, I skipped some of the basics that make my favorite clothes easier to coordinate. I don’t really know. I just know I’ve been wearing the same two pair of jeans nearly every day.

So, as my tightwad-self tries to come up with a solution for this problem, I’m considering a shopping spree wherein strategy will be key. (Otherwise, I’ll wind up buying clothes for my furniture.) Here’s what I’m thinking: going basic. Getting lots of simple, easy-to-mix-and-match pieces, and adding style through accessories. Seems like I could spend less and get more this way.

So, speaking of accessories, here’s a shout-out/plug/thanks-for-the-inspiration to a friend who has an awesome new business. Jessica has brilliantly combined some of her passions and talents with some of her goals in a new jewelry and accessories business, Noonday Collection.

The jewelry comes from many of the third-world countries Jessica has visited, and women she has met. The money raised from this venture will help Jessica and her husband adopt a little boy from Rwanda. How cool is that?? And once their little one is in the fam, Jess will continue by helping other families adopt.

And from a woman with a killer sense of fashion, this stuff is rad.

And wouldn’t all look great in my windowsill?:)

This week…

I found…

a glue gun!

You can imagine my husband’s excitement when I came home and proclaimed my victory.

As we settle into our life in the Czech Republic, I think we’re doing pretty well. We still feel so lucky we could even pull this stunt (moving to another country for the heck of it), and we’re really happy we chose Prague. But there’s one thing that’s nearly killing me… no thrift stores! Or Craigslist! So two things.

But along with the glue gun conquest, I also have renewed hope this week after popping into an antique store. Looking past all the china and dish ware that were cluttering the shelves, I found this baby.

I could’ve been sold on it just for looks and the 90 crown price tag…. about $5. But one of the other customers fiddled with it for me, and both ticking and ringing work!

Mind you, I think I’ll have to wind it forward 5-10 minutes every day because it doesn’t seem to keep time very well.

But isn’t it hip? I love it!

Then, while I was supposed to be shopping for winter clothes (I seem to have only packed 3 sweaters), I walked past a linen Ikat scarf in H&M and immediately grabbed it. Not for me. For the house. I do love scarves on furniture.

It’s pretty cute draped across the foot of the bed, but the chair in our bedroom needed it more.

Before/After

Unfortunately, the linen is way too thin to play the role of upholstery fabric, so this is just a temporary pinning.

But it sure is fun to look at for now!

Once I get around to really recovering the chair, I’m thinking about cutting the scarf into two or three sections and framing them.

III LOOOVE IKAT!

This is getting to be fun.:) I might just manage to feather our nest on a budget after all, even sans Goodwill. (Though I’ll still mourn the loss.)

When my sweet landlord came over last week, I’d already found my way around a paint store. (It’s amazing how much you can accomplish with a little Czech and a lot of hand gestures.) I was prepared to tell her I’d replace the furniture I couldn’t resist painting, but when she gasped and pointed, I knew it wouldn’t be necessary. It was a good gasp and point.

I think the Ikea stool that came with our flat (high cabinets) was meant to be turquoise.

I love a room that has one unexpected pop of bold color.

Like a red chandelier in a room with no red. (Scroll all the way down.)

Or an orange door.

Or a turquoise stool.

But the best part of painting this stool was not my landlord’s reaction. It’s that I discovered the magic of oil-based paint.

My hand gesturing at the paint store wasn’t quite sufficient for a detailed conversation about my paint preferences. So I came home with my first can of oil-based paint because that’s what the paint guy gave me. And I am in love. With the paint, not the guy.

Look at how the paint melts into itself! I wanted high gloss with no paint strokes, and I couldn’t be happier with the result. (Wish I’d known this when I painted my credenza with latex paint. No comparison.)

The one thing I did not fall in love with was the cleaning. Between applications of the same color, you can just wrap your brush in a plastic bag and stick it in the fridge. Easy. (Benita over at Chez Larsson has another great tip for how to save your brush between applications of the same color.) But trying to clean clean it… well, that was a ginormous pain. I spent 45 minutes over the sink with paint thinner, and the brush still isn’t clean enough to use with another color. So a friend and painting pro, Tiffany, told me she and her artist husband just buy cheap brushes and toss them. I was hoping for that advice.

I thought it would be a nuisance having to use a stool any time I wanted to reach the second shelf. But with a stool this cute… well, okay, regardless of the paint, turns out it’s just not that big of a pain. Tiny Kitchen Numero Dos is just as fun as Numero Uno. (Or Cislo Jeden in Czech.:) See? I know some.)

Fact: Plaids and knits are a great way to cozy up a room for winter.

Exhibit A: I found the coolest scarf on the street this week! (See my full collection of recent street finds here.) I brought it home for my husband, thinking he’d look dashing in it. But I’m afraid he doesn’t get to wear it.

Because…

Our new flat came with two of these white tables, but I’m still sans lamps or tchochke’s in our new country. So how to deck the table? Of course! A plaid wool scarf! It’s a perfect table runner. (You should try it.)

(And I dug the white tray and teapot out of the collection of kitchenware that also came with the flat.)

Exhibit B: I was so proud of myself, workin’ with the little I got an’ all, that I started looking around the room for more inspiration.

This vintage chair (also property of the flat) is fab! But the old, faded fabric is drab. I’d already draped a white fleece throw over it as a temporary and slight disguise.

Then I remembered a monstrously long gray scarf I knitted for my husband a few years ago. I love it running down the length this yet-to-be-recovered vintage chair (it’s on the project list) even more than I love it around my husband’s neck.

So thanks for your scarves, honey. They look great in the living room. And don’t worry… I’ll keep your neck warm with kisses.

We just moved into our new, long-term flat in Prague, and let me tell you, my organizing/decorating inspiration is overflowing! But before we “in with the new,” we must “out with the old.” I need to bid a proper farewell to our one-room-wonder.

Here’s my send-off to my favorite part: the kitchen.

(Psst… like my vintage apron? Here’s a video of my collection.)

(Psst… like my dinner soundtrack? Get the song free here.)

(Psst… impressed with my culinary skeels? You would be if you had smell-o-vision. Here’s the sort-of recipe.)

Amy’s That-Was-Actually-Crazy-Delicious Roasted Veggies and Meat

• Vegetables, chopped (onions, peppers, mushrooms, carrots, potatoes … anything that’s good roasted)
• Meat, chopped
• Garlic, minced
• Olive oil, salt, and pepper to taste (don’t be shy)
• Cook until it smells delicious, and the meat looks done. (For temperature, just guess. It’ll be fine. Mine oven’s in Celsius, so guessing is my new method, and it hasn’t failed me yet. Well, I did melt some baked apples this morning. Did you know apples could melt? But they were still edible!)

When I was in ninth grade I started saving all my change. I was going to go to Paris. A good friend and I were in French class, and we both loved it… the language and the culture. (Hello? Chocolate.) So probably over crafting flower-embellished jelly shoes one day, we decided we’d finance a trip to Paris together by saving all our change. I saved all through high school, even after I’d moved to a new town.

We never made it to Paris together. I think I got to about $40. But we have had an international rendez-vous, and I think it’s an even better story than our original plan!

Fast forward about 14 years (4 years of pen-palling, then 10 years of lost contact), and my sweet friend Angela calls me out of the blue (thank you facebook). She’s in Prague! I say, “Cool! Where’s that?” Turns out she married a gent from there. Three months after that phone call, my husband and I go visit. We decide to move there. And here we are!

So for Angela’s birthday, I made a Tiny Art to celebrate how it all started.

Happy Birthday, Angela! And thanks for Prague.:)

(Funny enough, Prague actually has its own Eiffel Tower!)

(Petřín Tower is 1/5th the size of the actual Eiffel Tower, but thanks to the hill it stands on, it’s the same height in terms of elevation.)