I am the right brain.
I am creativity, a free spirit. I am passion.
Yearning . Sensuality. I am the sound of the roaring laughter .
I am taste. The feeling of sand beneath bare feet.
I am movement. Vivid colors,
I am the urge to paint on an empty canvas,
I am boundless imagination. Art. Poetry. I sense. I feel.
I am everything I wanted to be.

Forget recycling, try upcycling! Give old items a new lease on life with a spark of inspiration and a little elbow grease… The rules for decor are being replaced by a more personal and practical approach as we take decorating into own hands. Literally.

You don’t need to have a ton of time or money to spend decorating your nest. It’s all about the unexpected, mixing fine antiques with your collection of Barbie dolls; leaving temporary party decorations up for years because they just somehow seem right; wedging antique columns into a suburban house, or planting grass in your shower.  Allow your home to be a true sanctuary where you allow yourself to dream.

Just because an item started it’s life as one thing doesn’t mean it can’t be reinvented, re-purposed, or re-styled. It’s so very important to be surrounded by objects dear to your heart;  whether you like bold colors or muted ones; modernism or traditional spaces; your abode is the perfect opportunity to take old , recycled, or unwanted pieces and make them your own!

 
Images via Google images

There is a natural and inherent beauty in the food we love and eat. And sometimes, in the midst of “watching what we eat,” we forget about the sustaining, pure and wonderful powers of food. The way a fresh peach feels in your hands or the sound of eggs cracking on the edge of a bowl.

We forget about food’s simple beauty, and about how food and its preparation connects us with loved ones, our heritage, different cultures, new friends and happy occasions. Family dinners at the end of a long day, the cake we are served on our birthday; food nourishes our bodies and our souls. Every beloved recipe is a gathering of interesting materials, a mixed medium art piece of sorts, that ends in a meal instead of a canvas.

It is no coincidence that our most cherished memories and precious traditions are deeply rooted around our most basic of  instincts, feeding ourselves and the ones we love.

Images via Dietlind Wolf

What defines vintage home decor is the intensity and depth the vintage pieces add to a room. Beloved pieces will make any room more appealing and interesting to the eye.  History and character is what your looking for; they do not necessarily have to “collectables” to be a great vintage find. Experiment with decor, there is always a true sense of appreciation for the old when you incorporate them with the new.

Bright idea! Personalize a rug with your own design, or a pretty stencil, using acrylic paint

Images via Country Living

Cheers to resolutions we can actually keep!

Getting organized sounds simple but can be pretty overwhelming, especially for moms. There are a million reasons we avoid getting organized, but by far the biggest hurdle is the perception that “I don’t have enough time.” Our imaginations have a wonderful way of making problems — especially organization-related ones –much bigger than they actually are. It’s amazing what you can tackle in small windows of time by just taking baby steps,  and by allowing for a little imperfection. Set an egg timer for 10-20 minutes and just go to town on what you can!

Especially after the holidays, it seems like we can never escape the toys. Here are our top three tips to help prevent a complete toy takeover of your house:

1. Install a few hooks. The workhorses of the organizational world, hooks are inexpensive and make costume cleanup a cinch. Install a row of 3-5  at kid-height, in your playroom for your princesses and pirates. If you’ve got more costumes than those 5 hooks can hold, it’s time to donate a few. 

2. Set up a “toss” box and make time to fill it. Grab a cardboard box and put it in the middle of the kitchen table one night this week. Set an egg timer for 15 minutes and then have a “race” to see who can find, and put in the box, the most broken, unusable toys. The winner gets to stay up later than usual on Friday night and you get to dump the waste without guilt that night.

3. Make a “too little for me” bin. A lot of parents make the mistake of trying to cull their children’s toys without soliciting any input, because they fear their children won’t be able to part with their toys. But there’s one Jedi-mind-trick that really works. Put a cardboard box in your main playroom and title it: too little for me. Then go through toys with your children while they are playing and have them put “babyish” toys in that bin for you to give away, take to a consignment shop, or save if you’ve got another little one on the way.

Organization tips via Alicia Rockmore and Sarah Welch and Coolmompicks.com

Images via homedit.com

Every country seems to have a different way of celebrating Christmas. Each one has special traditional Christmas food, special Christmas traditions and customs and different ways of giving gifts. Much of what we today consider holiday perennials have been around for nearly two centuries. The Christmas tree — the king of all traditions — is the most obvious, the centerpiece of many a home; and the tradition we love the most.

Legend says the original Saint Nicholas, who traveled around bringing gifts and cheer to those in need, came upon a small village one year and heard of a family in need. An impoverished widower, devastated by the passing of his wife, could not afford to provide a dowry for his three daughters. St. Nick knew the man was too prideful to accept money, so he simply dropped some gold coins down the chimney, which landed in the girl’s stockings, hung by the fireplace to dry. (Or so the tale goes.) Thus the modern tradition was born, though present-day stockings are commonly stuffed with tiny gifts and candy, not gold.

Merry Christmas from all of us at Stephanie’s Little Luxuries! may your holidays be merry and bright!

Images via Google images

Need some color inspiration for decorating your baby’s nursery? There are so many options out there, a mama can get pretty overwhelmed. Enter Design Seeds, a website dedicated to all the colors of the rainbow.  From the hundreds of color palettes there, here are a  few bold color schemes we particularly favored.  Not necessarily for the color timid, but remember that boldness in moderation will punch up a neutral room.  And even if you love the color, practicing some restraint is a seasoned designer secret…

Remember when people actually sat down and hand wrote letters to their loved ones? No? Well the holidays are the perfect time to revive the loveliness of snail mail and holiday cards are inevitably going to fill up your mail box and need a landing place that will display them in all their charming glory. Make this season more merry with our chic, inventive and simple ways to give your holiday cards a life beyond the mail box!

Christmas Card Garland

Recycle holiday cards with this clever garland idea. Trace a cookie-cutter shape around the most visually interesting part of the card. Cut out the shape, punch a hole, and tie it to pine garland with narrow red ribbon or yarn.

Jingle Bell Display

Big bells can be used for more than their good looks and sweet sound. Tip them over to create the perfect perch for your holiday cards.

Framed Santa Card Display

Gather a collection of Santa cards together in a vintage frame. The cards are mounted on the ribbons with tape, then draped and taped (or tacked) around the back of the frame.

Santa Card Chair Decoration

Punch holes in each card and string through pretty ribbon to add to a chair back or over a doorway.

Christmas Card Wreath

Turn your favorite holiday cards into a whimsical wreath. Cut the cards into different-size circles (simplify the job with scrapbooking punches). Arrange the circles into a wreath shape, overlapping and securing the pieces with crafts glue. With a sewing machine, stitch over the top. Attach a ribbon to the top with a colored paper clip and hang.

Christmas Card Canister

Slip just-arrived holiday cards inside a clear glass canister for a bright and colorful way to showcase Christmas greetings. Place the canister on a side table or, for a surprising decoration, onto a kitchen shelf next to cooking supplies.

DIY and images via Better Homes and Gardens

Materials/Tools Needed:

- Foam Core Board

- Craft Knife

- Fabric Scissors

- 1.5″ buttons (I used 32 buttons)

- 1.5″ Button Covering Kit

- Your Preferred Fabric (The wreath shown used vintage velvet & vintage suede for the buttons, vintage velvet for the wreath base, for the bow: vintage velvet, vintage bed sheet & vintage ascot tie)

- Vintage or New Trim

- Staples (a regular stapler, not a staple gun)

-Tacky Craft Glue

- Embroidery Thread

- Hand Sewing Needle

- Sewing Machine (there’s a little sewing done with the bow, but you could always hand sew it, or just use a ribbon bow)

Step-by-Step

1. Cut your foam board. The size of the outside of this wreath is 14″x14″. The inside opening is 8″ x 8″. Use a plate (8″) and bottom of a lampshade (14″) as a template to trace circles. Cut out the shapes with a craft knife.

2. Cover your wreath form with fabric. First, freehand a circle inside and outside your wreath form on the wrong side of your fabric. Allow about a 1″- 1.5″ area of fabric on either side (see photo below). Cut out both circles.

Now cut triangle notches with your fabric scissors all the way around on the inside and outside. This will help your fabric to fold over to the back more easily.

Add a bit of glue on each tab. Fold over and then staple to reinforce. Open a regular stapler up and stapled flat.

3. Make and attach your fabric buttons to the wreath form. Here’s how you cover buttons with fabric. You will need a starter kit which is the round plastic disks you see below. (NOTE: There’s also another navy blue plastic disk that fits inside, but these instructions don’t use it – Use your fingers instead. That is why you won’t see the blue plastic disk make an appearance here) You only have to buy that once and use it over and over.

Cut out a square of fabric. Be sure to leave around 3/4″ of an inch or so all the way around. Better to have too much fabric than not enough.

Cut off the excess fabric at the corners.

Make sure your button is centered on top of the wrong side of your fabric, and then push both into the plastic mold. If it feels like there’s still too much fabric and is too bulky, trim off around the edges again just a little. Push down the fabric as flat as you can with your fingers.

Place the back part of the button on top of the smooshed fabric and push really hard. You should feel it pop into place. The metal will bend inward. The smaller the button, the harder this is to do depending on how bulky your fabric is. Velvet is pretty bulky, but luckily you’re using 1.5″ buttons. The larger the button, the easier it is.

You’re done! Pull the whole thing out of the plastic mold and flip it over. Et Voila! New button!

Now it’s time to attach your buttons. You can do this two ways: sew them on with a needle and thread. This can hurt your fingers after a while since you’re sewing through foam core, or you can hot glue them on.

You would first need to remove the shank on the back (the loop). You can use a shank remover or plyers. Since the back of the button won’t sit flush or flat (it has a concave curve), you will need to glue a thick button inside so that it sits flush. THEN hot glue them on.

The back of your wreath will look like a hot mess when you’re done sewing on your buttons. That’s ok. Leave a space at the bottom of your wreath open (with no buttons) to attach your bow later.

4. Now add trim to the inside and outside of your wreath. Craft glue was used to adhere the trim on the wreath shown

5. Now make and attach your bow! The bow is up to you. You could make a simple bow out of ribbon (maybe vintage velvet ribbon?) or get fancy like the wreath pictured.   Make a double bow, the wreath shown used the front from the brown floral velvet (cut from this thrifted dress) and the back from a yellow floral bed sheet. Sew a strip of the brown floral fabric and wrap it around BOTH in the center.

To make the wreath as shown, cut off the bottom ends of a vintage ascot tie  and staple them to the bottom of the wreath. Then sew on the double-bow on top of that with a needled and thread. Pin, with straight pins, the top end corners of the yellow part of the bow to the wreath so it doesn’t flop down. (see pic above)
Then, All done!

Images and DIY via thompsonfamily.typepad.com