creative lighting

What a beautiful creation out of broken bits of glass, ceramic and metal household items!  Amazing what some might consider as junk or in the German sense, recycling an art form.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and this takes a functional item and gives it a dose of creative imagination.  We dined under this at Stanton  Restaurant in Cologne, Germany.  It is attached to a the beautiful Antoniterkirche which sustained damage during the war and was rebuilt.  Perhaps symbolic.
Delicious lunch, slow food (both local and duration), but lovely experience!

down with the decorations

When is it time it take down your exterior holiday decorations?  Here in the Midwest the "polar vortex" has forced many to keep up the outside wreaths, lights, etc. longer than usual.  We keep ours very simple and slightly un-Christmasy to get more time out of them.  With one warmer day last weekend my husband retrieved all the wreaths and lights to be stowed away until next year.
When do you feel is the right time to take down the decorations?

100 things: 86'd

Happy New Year!  Like many others I am welcoming 2014 by saying goodbye to clutter and hello to order.  One of my favorite blogs that I follow, The Gardener's Cottage posted this powerful yet simple activity of purging your home quickly of 100 random and no longer useful items here.

It took my son and I less than five minutes to go through some items in a basket in the basement rec room.  He can be a bit of a packrat, but once the first junk item went in he was quick to fill the bag. In no time at all we collected over 100 items for recycling, garbage and donating!

Next was my teenager daughter's desk drawer and then my kitchen junk drawer.

What a release!  Try this and you will feel lighter and happier immediately.

books

I have a peculiar manner in arranging my books.  Instead of organizing by subject, author or heighth I arrange by color on the spine.  I have done this since I was a small girl.  Here are some of my favorite cookbooks above my phone and worktop area in my kitchen.  Like a rainbow...
I have been noticing this trend as of late in design magazines.  I was ahead of the trend!  How are your books arranged?

no comments?

I guess I need to learn a lot more about blogging.  Any suggestions?

Happy 2013!

Happy 2013 to you all!  In honor of the new year I am posting one of my all time favorite things, the Linnea Designs poster calendar.  http://www.linneadesign.com/_calendars/hannah_popup_1.php 
This is a combination of two of my requirements in bringing anything into my home:  1.  functional and 2. beautiful!  The illustrations are done by Johanna Riley in simple, yet vivid colors and shapes.  I first received this as a gift almost 15 years ago from my very thoughtful sister-in-law and promptly hung it on my wall.  It has been a constant in my kitchen for that many years.  Pity that I didn't think to save them all as they could be re-used in seven years time.  Hang one or two (like mine) or all 12 at once for an instant gallery wall and glance at the year to come!

Halloween treat buckets

This delightful Halloween display came together in less than a minute.  I simply hung all of our various treat bags, bucket and totes on my foyer coat rack and done!  There are some beautiful vintage treat bags I have seen, but the cheesy plastic ones my children have been using for years are more precious to me than any pricey antique.  My bag is the gorgeous felted wool tote that I bought at the end of the season at a high-end shop.  Sometimes less is more when it comes to holiday decorations.