Tag Archives: inspiration

Little Green Notebook

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I recently found Jenny Komenda’s wonderful blog, Little Green Notebook and every post wants me to try to do more DIY projects. Or more accurately, ANY DIY project since my current tally on those is ZERO.


And I don’t know why since my mother was a DIY queen before anyone was saying “DIY.” Not sure what they called it back then…probably something along the lines of “can’t afford the expensive stuff.” But either way – I grew up in a beautiful home full of refinished and refurbished treasures.


Even more inspirational, this blog was ultimately a springboard for a decorating business, Pearl Street Interiors. Who knows what mom could have done with a blog way back when…


I also just love the site design. If you’re not familiar with the site check it out today!

In Honor of Our Wedding Weekend…

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We’re driving to Cleveland for a wedding this weekend, so I pulled this little gem from my file.

How about this muse board from Wedding Cabaret?


I love the feathers. Not sure about a feathered wedding dress off the runway… But for small details like shoes and headpieces, and of course for the ancillary events like the rehearsal dinner – I love it.

Wrap It Up – I’ll Take It.

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I’ve written before about how I can decorate the hell out of a Christmas tree. So it should come as no surprise that I can also create a gift wrap presentation that would bring tears to your eyes.

Okay – that’s a bit of an exaggeration… But if there is anyone who would make you hesitate to open a gift for fear of ruining the perfection of the wrapping, it’s Sande of A Gift Wrapped Life fame.


She recently opened an online shop and it’s just beautiful. I want one of everything. But here are some of my favorites:






And you really have to see the page for gift sets (“boxed gifts“). Again – I’ll take one of each. And yes – I would like that wrapped.

Is it me…

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…or is the cutest picture you’ve ever seen?


I found it on Grosgrain last week.

It made me smile. It also made me want to scoop all three of them up so I could give them a big squeeze.

I don’t know them though, and even if I did, the chances of them all being squashed together like that when I saw them would be pretty unlikely…

So I’ll just settle for squeezing my own three children. If they let me.

Squeezing isn’t really their thing.

They don’t love the group hug…

I may have to settle for a family pile up.

Right after I sew ties onto all of their shirts.*

Happy Monday!

*Which would be right after I take sewing lessons since I don’t actually know how to sew…

Color Story

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A Creative Mint is one of my favorite sites for color inspiration.

Leslie has been featured at many of my other must read design blogs (including her Color Me Pretty feature at decor8), but I’m not sure where I found her.

If you ever need some ideas for color themes or decorative touches, I highly suggest a visit to A Creative Mint.






For a little more information on Leslie and her gorgeous photography, see this interview on decor8.

Color Palette Generator

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I find the best stuff on Creature Comforts. It’s a must read in my out of control Google Reader which is so often subject to “mark all as read” cleansing.

A couple of weeks ago, Ez featured something called the Color Palette Generator.


As a lover of “things,” I’m charmed by the idea of taking a picture of a favorite objet or painting and generating a color palette to use for decorating a room. This is exactly what the Color Palette Generator does, and Ez provides a little tutorial:


I immediately tried to do this with a couple of images that I’ve featured here.

This lovely little painting by Liza Hirst:


And then this magnificent chair found on Absolutely Beautiful Things:


Unfortunately, neither worked for me. So I think I need a tutorial for the tutorial… In the meantime, I’ll just have to look through existing palettes. Let me know if you can figure out why I’m getting errors. Or…maybe not. This could be a major time suck…

The Birds Return

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Remember this birdie wallpaper I featured the other week?

Well Viv from ish and chi recently used it in a DIY project. Instead of papering a room with it, she created a beautiful display above her bed.




I love how something that looks so fantastic can be just a fraction of the expense that a large piece of art would require.

Elegant, modern and a perfect way to display a favorite wallpaper or textile. Brilliant.

Beautiful Things Tend to Inspire, but Absolutely Beautiful Things Inspire Absolutely

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Or maybe it was “absolute power…” Anyway – that’s one of the very few quotes I remember from school – and I still had to look up who said it.

Speaking of Absolutely Beautiful Things – don’t you just love Anna Spiro? I’m obsessed with ABT and find her images and writing to be a true source of daily inspiration.

I particularly love her Friday Flowers:




She also indulges us with pictures of her own interior design work:




And of course, I find great inspiration in the paintings that she commissions for Black & Spiro:




That last one may be for herself though…

Everything from her color choices and love of textiles to her eye for art and flowers makes me want to move to Australia and beg to be her personal assistant. (Don’t know what she’d think of the three toddlers I’ve have in tow, but maybe we could keep them busy sorting fabric samples…)

Really – I just love everything about this site. Every day is a gem, and I’m never disappointed. If Absolutely Beautiful Things isn’t currently in your reader, add it today!

Pretty Little Purses

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Everyone who is familiar with my websites knows how much I love Brooke Galardi of Bee Gee Bags. And I would buy one of each if I could.So in light of my new hobby – I decided that I would do the next best thing. I’d try to capture them on paper.

What do you think?

My Bag


Brooke’s Bag

My Bag


Brooke’s Bag

My Bag


Brooke’s Bag

My Bag

I also had a couple of failed attempts. I don’t hate them – but they’re not what I was going for, so they won’t see the light of day.

Anyway – these were fun to do, and now I almost (ALMOST) feel satisfied. Nothing really compares to the real thing, but in these hard financial times, we have to make due…

How about you? What do you substitute for your real life cravings?

P.S. Any tips for photography “how to” websites? I mean for people with regular point and shoot cameras. My pretty little pictures look rather sad in the images above…