If the detritus of living can’t be hidden away in a drawer or cabinet, the next best thing is to hide it away in some attractive vessel. I, for example, have fabrics and sewing accessories strewn about my office in a most irritating fashion — I have a basket for my threads and a basket for my cloth, but somehow everything from shears to patterns find their way onto the floor. For you, it may be papers, books, art supplies, or crafting gear, but stuff needs to get out of the way.

For odds and ends storage, I like stacking nesting boxes in cute patterns because you can slide them into empty corners, but they don’t take up a whole lot of space. These particular boxes come from the unfortunately named Dot Com Gift Shop, which has all manner of sweet little things for the home. If, however, you would rather make your own boxes, there is no shortage of instructional books out there, like Gift Box Studio and Creating Books & Boxes.

In the latest issue of Cottage Living, interior designer Jackie Terrell said that “Too much match-matchy can kill a house by taking away its vibration or life.”

I have to respectfully disagree…sometimes. While looking up photos of rooms in which one color dominated, I’ll admit that I saw a lot of duds. This kitchen created by Pam of RetroRenovation, on the other hand, rocks my socks!

This room is from http://www.omodern.com/Eurobad/euro.html, a site that bills itself as an exhibition of Europe’s worst interiors of 1974.

Funny how it looks just like some of the kids’ bedrooms you’ll see in the pages of the nicer decor magazines. It just goes to show you that no matter how reviled a color scheme, furniture style, or overall look is in one decade, you can be pretty sure it will be on the hot list again in just a few years.

I always wanted a breakfast nook — what I got instead was a kitchen that’s the size of some nooks. The fact that I really like saying the word ‘nook’ aside, having a cozy, sunny, family-oriented space in which to eat breakfast and other casual meals is a wonderful thing.

Via Cottage Living

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Maybe it’s just my aversion to all things medical — I prefer to think of myself as solid inside like a potato — but these refillable I.V.s for plants from Vitamin Living really, really give me the creeps.

In the grand tradition of big box stores that start pumping out Christmas music just after Halloween, I thought I’d think about my least favorite season early this year so it didn’t sneak up on me unawares. It’s not difficult when stores like Domestications are starting to preview their holiday wares. Growing up, we always had live fir trees ready for post-Christmas planting adorned with real candles, but in recent years I haven’t done much of anything to mark the season.

Naturally all that beautiful real tree, real fire ambiance was lost on school-age me, and I dreamed of having a pretty pink tree like this one.

While grown-up me dreams of having the candles of yesteryear, she doesn’t particularly relish the thought of her house burning down when one of the cats decides to catch one of the flickering orange sprites that have landed all over the tree. And while real trees are wonderful, I always feel a little guilty for killing a tree just to spruce up (rimshot) the house a little. Last year, I almost convinced The Beard that we needed a red tree of all things, but maybe pink really is the way to go.

Would this be vintage 50s cool or so horribly tacky as to be classified a crime against nature? You tell me:

Like I said over at Manolo for the Brides, this is going to be a light week where posting is concerned because I’m nowhere near a computer. Thank you, timestamp editor! Anyway, now that it’s getting colder (in MA and WA both) my thoughts turn to garden furniture and accessories. That’s right, even as my rhubarb is getting brown and crispy in its bed, I’m thinking ahead to the glorious springtime that’s only a handful of months away. I’m not crazy — it’s just that now is the best time to find stuff for the garden on sale!

This Thai Sukhothai Buddha is made with real granite and a touch of reinforced fiberglass for outdoor durability. I don’t know about you, but he makes me feel serene.

On the other hand, the traditional laughing Buddha (Buddha Maitreya) makes me feel happy! Just like his friend up there, he’s made of granite and fiberglass so he can sit out in your garden without losing his big ol’ grin.

Both are on sale at Bellacor for %15 off the usual price. Now that’s bliss!

Sometimes I get sick of my decor. I mean really sick of my decor, where I start giving things to the Goodwill without even thinking until I realize that someone is going to buy my the cast iron and enamel Dutch oven that’s been in my family for generations for fifty-freakin’-cents. This sort of thing usually happens when I’m angry, hungry, tired, or otherwise emotionally occupied. The Beard comes home to find that half our stuff is gone and the remaining stuff has been rearranged.

I have never, however, gone as far as this guy.

Long story short, he was sick of his wooden kitchen floor but didn’t want to compromise the resale value of his flat by tearing it up or painting it. He covered it with white self adhesive vinyl and doodled all over it until he liked what he saw. This floor? It makes me wish I could draw better.