This screenprint by artist Alice Melvin is fantastic! Colors are nice and muted, a creamy background and talent in spades. Perfect for all the mod wanna-be ornithologists out there. Those do exist don’t they?

I find that cleaning the house with these products makes me so much happier than what I was using prior. Any product that makes you look forward to your home chores is a winner in my book.  Bonus, they work and you can buy them at Target!  Yes, of course I would be even happier if I was giving these to my maid to clean my home, but alas the only maid in residence right now is me.

There’s not much to say about this brand that you can’t concur with your own eyeballs.  Aubin & Wills is flip, flappin’ jackin’ awesome. I thought I was so clever with my dancing elephants but alas a fox in a top hat may trump the trotting duo, maybe. It seems that the collective animal inspiration has shifted from owls as muse to foxes which is fine by me as I was getting tired of those big creepy eyes starring back at me from every blog and Etsy shop.  I can deal with a sly, debonair fox any day. You really ought to go over to the Aubin & Wills shop and check out all the goodness for yourself, because there’s not much prose I can add that will surpass the enticing visuals that lay ahead of you. Fox in a top hat?  Why didn’t I think of that?

  I think bunnies are always cute, don’t you?  Happy Monday!

It has been nearly a year since I moved into my current flat.  I haven’t done much decorating but I do tend to be on the minimalist side so it hasn’t been a complete eyesore.  I ordered a sectional that’s not really a sectional.  It was a custom order and I inadvertently made it too small, so now any coffee table seems odd in front of it.  I have tried many options since, two Lack tables (two too big), a petite glass and stainless steel table that just barely fits.  My next try will perhaps be round but for now I have tired of coffee table-gate.

I decided since the sofa and table are there and not hideous, I would tackle the room I spend the most time in first–my dining room now studio. I had ordered a very inexpensive, okay cheap, version of this desk when I moved in.  I broke a whole side leg within two weeks of its arrival and the shady company I procured it from would not return my calls.  I assumed when I bought the desk it was a high gloss lacquer (the tiny photo and text were in a foreign language) but came as a matte white which became a dirt and fingerprint magnet.  I decided this week to finally give it away.  Now, desk-less and free of compulsive cleaning I am able to get to work on the space.  My budget is not huge, meager would be more accurate.  I chose two versions above, the white room is almost all from Ikea and I figured I could check Craigslist first to see if I could get any of the pieces second hand (thus getting better pricing). The black room is completely out of my budget but I thought maybe, I could recreate the look of the library shelves with kitchen cabinets and molding?  The large shelving piece is $1,500 which I admit is a great price for the size and it would fit perfectly against my wall but alas that is $1,500 more than I have to spend. The small desk is from Cost Plus and very reasonable.  

Don’t worry that there’s an absence of color, I will bring that in with all my color coded books, yes, every book is organized by color and if I have my way one day I will make custom covers and my own personal Dewey Decimal system.  I digress, so you now have an idea of what I am looking for any ideas for me of how to accomplish this and not going straight to the poor house?

P.S. The swatch of carpet is what I have in that room now, I am not a fan of carpeting but as far as carpet goes it’s not that bad.  It resembles sisal and I do like that.