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We’ve long been inspired by Kim Stoegbauer, designer and founder of The TomKat Studio Etsy shop. Creative, colorful kid’s party goods are her specialty, but she regularly offers gorgeous free printables for holidays and special occasions on her blog.

Recently, Kim’s been collaborating with Pottery Barn Kids, sharing her expertise and providing free downloadable party guides, invitations, DIY décor, and even delish drink and dessert recipes.

We loved her most recent creation, a safari-inspired birthday party that works for any kid who’s obsessed with animals. The party is ideal for outdoors – where kids can run wild –, but it’s easily adapted for inside the house.

The party suite uses a neutral palette of zebra stripes and animal prints, which makes it adaptable for both girls and boys. Maps, elephants, rhinos and other exploration gear are all incorporated in the printable materials – which include invitations, cupcake wrappers, food flags thank you cards and favor bags.

You’ll also find recipes for a decadent chocolate peanut butter cake and instructions for making layered cupcakes in a jar – a sweet send-off for little explorers.

Don’t miss Kim’s other recent collaboration to the Pottery Barn Kids Design Studio: a modern grey and yellow themed baby shower with printables that are easily re-purposed for brides-to-be and spring weddings.

SOURCING: + The TomKat Studio + Young Explorers Party Guide via Pottery Barn Kids

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Though they may just be removed for styling purposes, we’ve noticed that many homes featured in shelter magazines and on design blogs rarely include plant life, except for a bouquet or two of cut flowers. Not only do houseplants bring life to an indoors pace, they help detoxify the air in your home and they’ve even been shown to increase productivity in the workplace.

Thumbs not so green? Winter may not be the best time of year to dig in, but starting small – make that mini! – can be a fun way to test the soils.

Last week Etsy’s weekly How-Tuesday blog column featured practical tips on creating wee gardens and low-maintenance terrariums using unexpected household containers, like thimbles, wine corks, teacups and shot glasses.

All it takes is a small cutting from a hardy houseplant (ask your gardening guru friend) and a creative container to get started. Once you’ve mastered the mini garden, you’ll be on to greener pastures in no time.

Still not so sure? Check out the Etsy Sellers below for adorable, affordable options.

SOURCING: + How Houseplants Keep You Healthy from Canadian Gardening Magazine + Micro-Planter and Terrarium How-To on the Etsy Blog + Set of 3 Tiny Terrariums by TortoiseLovesDonkey + Succulent Cork Magnets by AlissaRose +Vintage Thimble Planters by DoodleBirdie

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You may notice I’m having Orange Chicken again this week. It’s not because I’m particularly obsessed with Orange Chicken (although I am) it’s because we didn’t end up having it the other week for some reason. I can’t remember why. I may have instituted a work stoppage due to being angry over the amount of [...]

Love 

This test tube chandelier is so rad and can be interpreted in a million ways. How would you spin it? Designed by The Maria S.C. lamp, designed by Pani Jurek, found on Design Milk.

My dear friend, Fonda Yoshimoto, crocheted this adorable cat. It is her very first crocheted animal! I'm calling him Bandit Cat, because as you can see, he has a little mask around his button eyes. She got the pattern from The Green Dragonfly. (The ceramic vase he's sitting on is one of Fonda's creations, as well.)

Fonda is an artist who does quite a bit of sculpture, and she sometimes incorporates fiber art into her work. Here is a porcelain and fabric doll called Tonbo, which is Japanese for "dragonfly."

And this is Link, a large-scale knitted piece for an open studio she had last summer.

The living room: It's the room we showcase for visitors, the room that reflects our changing tastes and our changing lifestyles. It's also the room that so often gets stuck and can easily feel dated and cluttered. While swapping out a couch is not something most of us can do regularly, here are seven smaller updates that can help freshen up the look and feel of your living room. Read More...

Mary Meyer Spring 2012

The other day I shared the evolution of my home office, from dining room to traditional office to lounge office. That was the outer change. But there was an inner transformation that was less apparent. Read More...

@AmyAzzarito adorable. though i think i still prefer the SNL version ;)

In my previous post {part one}I showed you the pictures Jonna sent me and here are some Nathalie of Nath&Co sent to me. Nathalie is a graphic designer and visual artist. With an eco friendly approach she is re-using materials to give them a new use. She has six blackboards in her home and when people come over they enjoy writing and drawing on them. See more of her boards here and have a look at the boards she designed for her sons room.
The picture below, says Nathalie was an inspiration for her own blackboards... she don't know who's wall it is but funny enough we can find out some things about the person .. She likes to shop online-loves flowers - has an animal called Sid and might even be ready to go to Paris! If this is you let us know ;)

@Shelterholic please remove my posts from your site. you don't have permission to run our copyrighted content on your for-profit site.

Are you loving the new bright, fiery Pantone 'it' color of the year but are not ready to commit an entire wall or major piece of furniture to the sexy 'tangerine tango'? Read More...

My kids and I love to go letterboxing, and one of the best parts is coming up with our own stamps to use. If you're wanting to make a simple stamp, but don't want to mess with carving, Michele of Michele Made Me shows how you can use craft foam and old wine corks to create custom stamps.

Well happy Friday and weekend to YOU!!

I gotta say, your responses to my last post made me feel SO MUCH better. I certainly do not feel alone, especially since so many of you feel the way I do.

There were SO many great suggestions (yes, I read every comment) and a couple of you mentioned the Sleep Cycle app on the iphone. I had heard of it before and decided to give it a try.

You see, I don’t usually have a problem falling asleep – it’s getting my booty up that’s hard. I LOVE the sleep part. ;)

It’s totally freaky, but this thing works. I’ve only used it two mornings but it’s kind of blowing my mind. It somehow keeps track of your sleep patterns and wakes you during your lightest sleep phase. So if I set it between 7 and 7:30, it goes off when I’m sleeping the lightest during that time.

The first morning it went off and I felt fantastic. I didn’t even hit snooze! Today it went off and I snoozed it, but then realized right away I felt fine. So I got up within seconds of it going off both mornings. That’s happened…uhhh. Never?

It’s freaky. I can’t believe that a little dollar app would make that big of a difference, but so far it has. I’m going to keep using it to see if it keeps up, but I thought I’d mention to my fellow owls so you can try it out. :)

Anyhoo, today I wanted to share some of the amazing spaces that were linked up at the first Show Us Your House party here at TDC! This month’s room was the office or craft space. Since I shared my office redo this month, I thought it would be appropriate.

There were so many awesome ideas I just had to share!

Andrea’s space is so serene and pretty, and the cutting table in the middle of the room is ingenious:

Willow Wisp Cottage

She used two dressers and two dresser tops from IKEA – for less than $150! I LOVE that! And what great storage. I am SO doing this someday. If only IKEA would move closer, darn it.

Brook’s hubby made this a table for her craft space:

  Being Brook

And again, only $150 to build it! If you’re handy, it’s a great option. I could see doing something similar with two short bookcases and a butcher block countertop – now my wheels are really turning!! ;)

Janel uses chicken wire all along one wall as a larger than life inspiration board:

Hating Martha

What a fun idea!

I love Bec’s wall of beautiful organization:

Little Lucy Lu

The shelves, brackets and buckets were all from IKEA (I guess it’s a good thing it’s two hours away) but you could totally recreate this with supplies from the hardware store!

There were some perfectly organized spaces throughout the links, but I wanted to share a few using pegboard. It’s is supa cheap – and I think it’s a brilliant way to organize!

Kellie makes it look easy with her pretty blue pegboard:

  Nest of Posies

And Hayley uses it all over her walls in her basement craft room:

Mouse House Creations

You won’t even believe this space is unfinished! Bravo!

I love how Liz changed up a beat up dresser into a shelving system:

  Liz Marie

The beadboard covering the top of the dresser was brillz. And this is a great option for when you want to store TV components in a dresser as well!

Carrie has one of the most organized spaces I’ve ever seen!:

Saving for Six

The girl makes plastic baskets and wire shelving look so good, for real!!

I love seeing how people make the most of awkward spaces! Jen had an unused spot in her dining room and you won’t believe everything she fits behind that wall!:

Jennifer Rizzo

This side looks pretty amazing too! ;)

Joanne used an unused closet and made a (pretty darn spacious) office out of it:

  Double Wide in the Sky

Love it!!

Let’s end the officepalooza with a couple of pretties, eh?

I loved Julie’s bright craft room with the graphic black and white striped curtains:

   Less Than Perfect

And all of the beautiful colors in Kammy’s craft space:

Kammy’s Korner

Love the ceiling and how she mixed all those colors!

So there you go! Some organization ideas and pretty pictures to inspire you! This week I moved my craft space to a different spot in our basement and I LOVE how it’s turning out. These links are making me even more excited for a finished room to decorate someday!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend! Holla!

You'd never guess that the charming street façade of this 1880's bungalow in Adelaide, Australia conceals a bright and airy modern home. But it does. In fact, looking at it, you might imagine that the rooms inside are small, dim and oddly positioned. Which they were. And for several years, homeowners Kylie Brammy and George Kyprianou lived with it that way... Read More...

With over 300 exhibitors,Toronto's large Interior Design Show IDS12 runs this weekend. Toronto has the fastest growing condo market in the world and IDS12 focuses on what new condo dwellers need for their homes. Read More...