I used to be a huge candle fan, meaning I was one of the people who actually burn the candles instead of just letting them get all dusty, until the day I found out that cheap candles from the Chinese dollar store in nowheresville Brooklyn frequently have lead in the wicks. That gave me pause, but didn’t prompt me to toss out my tea lights.(Although I did find that I like personalized candles from Best Kept Secrets.) No, the last straw was a candle that threw off so much soot as it burned that it somehow stained a bunch of nearly invisible leftover grout that wasn’t cleaned properly off my bathroom tiles. You couldn’t actually see it until the soot started flying… when I tried to clean up, it stained the grout, which is why I have these odd stains on my bathroom tiles. Stupid candle!

Nowadays I don’t burn quite so many candles, what with the baby and the cats and the extreme dislike of soot, but I do keep some around, just in case. The ones I do keep around are pure beeswax with organic cotton wicks, with no scents or fillers. I’m partial to the Timberline brand, but there are plenty of great candlemakers out there working with pure beeswax instead of petroleum-based products. If I had the time, I might even try rolling my own with a kit or maybe reading up on the topic (which is a lot less appealing than just jumping in with the kit, really).

I am so loving these amazing dinosaur planters from Plaid Pigeon… they’re made of repurposed dinosaur toys, hand painted and sealed (complete with drainage holes), and the succulents inside are hardy enough to survive life with everyone from the green thumb set to the black thumb set.

If these came to live at my house...

both the cats and my darling daughter...

would go absolutely out of their minds!

I’m loving these super cute hand screen printed pillows, cushion covers, stockings, and cozies from Robin & Mould! Everything they sell is printed using water-based inks on natural linens and cottons at their little shop in the UK. Yellow and teal seem to be the colors they favor, but they’ve taken custom orders in the past!

I’m not really sure how owls became a thing, but here I sit on a couch decorated with owl throw pillows. Maybe I’m getting a little zany in my old age – please look away from my sock monkey kitchen chair pillows – but I can’t help but love animal inspired decor. Once upon a time that would have meant a leopard print chair, but now it’s more likely to mean a framed quilt patch featuring stylized songbirds or a pint glass with an elephant on it.

So how cute is all this?

Owl throw pillows in a living room via Dwell

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The whole empty frames thing has been much derided as lazy or ghetto or less-than-creative, but I still like it and think it can be a whole lot of fun if hung in something other than a grid. The look works especially well if you have some nice frames that will stand out on their on. Conversely, you can play around with frame orientation until you find art that you like that also fits into your budget.

Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing, but I think that in this case more is more. The empty frames being so colorful doesn’t hurt one bit. (via)

This pic strikes me as belonging to the waiting-on-art camp. The perfect silhouette? Artwork scrawled on construction paper by tiny hands? The perfect print, perhaps? (via)

Empty frames framed by other frames? It’s a little odd, but all right. I like how the gold frames find a friend in the little lamp with the golden shade. (via)

You don’t need to go crazy, especially if your empty frames are larger and particularly striking, like these.

Of course, it’s not like you have to commit to keeping all your frames empty forever. Mixing empty frames and frames containing some kind of image is the moderate (and now quite popular) way to incorporate empty frames into decor. (via)

I was all set to post about a cute little crafting project that lets you make a ‘please remove your shoes’ sign because, hey, no one wants beach sand or road sand tracked all over their floors. But as I was poking around the Intertubes wondering what else I could include to flesh things out a little, I happened upon a much radder DIY project that is as cool as the other was country-ish.

I won’t say this is an easy DIY Pacman couch project — think woodworking and upholstery shaping, not Mod Podge and a couple of minutes with a cordless drill. But for those with the time, energy, space, and materials money to give it a go, I say try it! Then (whether or not you’re successful) send me a link so I can feature it here, of course.

How adorable is all this stuff from Ninainvorm? She makes cute and colorful ceramics, screen prints, collages, and more, then sells them in her Etsy store way out in the Netherlands. Shipping is as expensive as you might imagine, but if your goal is to brighten up your environment, perhaps it’s worth it?

She says: “I make these name plates as a custom order for children and grown-up loved ones. I use the most beautiful vintage plates from my large vintage plate collection and then add screenprinted images & cut the letters of the name by hand out of colourful ceramic decal paper. Then the plates are fired in my kiln on a high temperature. The result is a unique, personal, sustainable and very cheerful plate.”

She says: “A beautiful medium-sized (contents: about 0.65 liter or 2/3 mugs) vintage 1960s design teapot, redecorated by me with my screenprinted lots of dots pattern in 6 colors. The vintage teapot is still in a very good condition, only some of the glazing on the handle feels a little bit rough, which isn’t something visible but you can feel it a little when you rub it with your fingers.”

She says: “Each set contains the six different postcards that you see on the pictures. In my other listings you can see detail pictures of the large prints that these postcards are the smaller version of.”

She says: “A beautiful medium-sized (about 7.5″”/18 cm diameter) vintage plate to which I added my screenprinted spirograph image. The plate is quite old, but still in a real good condition. This plate is fired on a high temperature and is therefore fit for daily use or to put it on a wall as wall art.”

As if you couldn’t guess, her life is just as colorful as her creations. See more at
her blog, which is well worth a visit!

Nothing new, patchwork furniture is often the purview of crafters with leftover fabric scraps and quilt-happy grannies. But is it chic? Can it ever be? Squint Limited thinks so and churns out colorful bespoke chesterfields, lampshade, and even dressers, all wrapped in a mix of contemporary and vintage fabrics. Oh, and period furniture styles that just pop when upholstered with bright, cheeky prints and bold colors.

Squint Limited’s pieces are made in England and upholstered traditionally, with tied springs and hand stitched seams. Each design is priced individually depending on the final mix of fabrics used, and a selection of sofa shapes can be made as bed settees. In other words, this ain’t your granny’s couch, and you’re going to pay more than she did for one. But, oh, aren’t they divine?