When it comes to amazing couch reupholstery, you can’t beat Susan’s primo DIY job! The hip chick from Freshly Picked managed to turn this:

Into this:

And apparently she learned to do it as part of a class she took with her husband. Lucky? I would SO like to take my boring little family room loveseat and turn it into something amazing. Want a little peek into how it was done, then look no further. Here’s a sweet time-lapse video of the couch during nine two-hour classes:

Have you ever tackled a DIY project on such a massive scale? Because I’m pretty sure I haven’t.

Sure, it’s possible to get by with plain old pots and pans, no pillows or throws, bare walls, and nothing but objects of utility. But what fun is that? You should always look for fun stuff – sometimes that means finding that one-of-a-kind thing, by thirfting or raiding your grandparents’ closet. Sometimes it means buying yourself something new. A little treat. We all deserve them! And here are two treats I’m loving:

First, so much better than your typical cutting board… a solid acacia puzzle board server from Viva Terra. If you’d like bigger puzzle pieces (for bigger pieces of focaccia, naturally), here’s a similar serving platter in sustainably-grown teak sold by Gaiam.

And second, a delicious pink and patterned skull print from Made By Girl. Since when are freaky-deaky skulls so darn cutesy? I’d love to put this in my daughter’s room if I didn’t think it would totally break her brain once someone tells her that skulls are meant to be scary.

What wee treats are you digging on right now?

Whether you go all out with a Valentine’s Day mantle (like this one) or cherry red hearts make you want to hurl, I hope you’re having a beautiful day today!

This is just fantastic – Sakura Adachi designed a unique piece of furniture for Campeggi that is all three. A bookcase when the chairs are pushed in, a desk for the singleton who wants her books close at hand, or a cozy table for a couple… a couple of readers, perhaps.

As someone who is currently using the kitchen table an ersatz home office, I could use it. As someone with a small house, I could use it. And as someone with toys everywhere at the moment, I could definitely use it!

These storage containers don’t just look like LEGOs – they actually click together like LEGO blocks! They’re actually made especially for STORE under a license from LEGO, so it’s no wonder they’re just a giant version of the real thing. Of course, they’re marketed toward kids, but big kids – I mean really big kids, like you and me – can use them, too.

Here’s an interesting question: Is cozy a polite way of saying cluttered? Does it have to be? Cozy does frequently stand in for cluttered – it’s an easy way to brush off clutter or to elevate it to a higher status. “These books piled everywhere in my apartment? That’s a sign of my eclectic genius and what makes my home cozy.” It’s like the term ‘lived in,’ which can mean so many things good and bad.

Which isn’t to say you can’t have a lot of stuff without clutter! I think the difference between cozy and cluttered is a feeling more than anything else. Cozy to me means that a space feels inviting – it has signs of life in it instead of being a sanitized space that looks like a catalog or a museum display. A big house with lots of space can still feel cozy, for example. And a big house can be cluttered, too, if all that space isn’t used effectively. A cluttered home will feel different than a cozy one. It won’t be inviting, and all the stuff strewn about willy-nilly can even be a little anxiety inducing. Visitors are afraid to touch anything, for fear of knocking something over or losing their keys.

That’s what cozy versus cluttered means to – what does it mean to you? Can you separate the two terms in your mind, or does cozy always feel a little cluttered to you?

TIP: If you would like to downsize some of your stuff, check out Unstuff Your Life!. It’s not about trading in chaos for minimalism, but rather figuring out the best way to use the spaces you have.

I love this pretty porcelain owl sugar shaker from West Elm. Owls are still a making an appearance on everything from pillows and tea towels to umbrella stands and mobiles, but I think this one is my favorite because it’s not super in-your-face.

While it’s listed as a sugar shaker, I don’t see why you couldn’t fill it with salt or cinnamon sugar or something else.

What do you think of owls – cute or super overrated?

How amazing are these images of Detroit’s downtown captured by photographers Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre? It seems like a ghost town or the corpse of a city – and an eerie reminder of Detroit’s glory days, since so many of the structures they photographed are were obviously magnificent in their heyday.

Like so many of the visuals that comes out of this sad city, it’s depressing. But still kind of hauntingly beautiful.

You can see these and more in Marchand and Meffre’s book Ruins of Detroit – which is the result of a five-year collaboration started in 2005.