Restoration Hardware obviously puts a lot of $ into their catalogs. They are beautifully shot, thick {newest is 300+ pages} and with it being so heavy, probably pretty pricey to ship. I recently received their Fall Baby & Child. It should have had a secondary title: The Gray Edition. Is it just me or is anybody else ready to see some color come back to RH? Don't get me wrong, there are some great new pieces of furniture and accessories, but it's hard to appreciate them because everything is, well...gray. I mean check out their delicate framed dresses made out of vintage maps.

 Gorg.

I love doing kids rooms and nurseries. Parents have big dreams of the perfect space to welcome their little nugget into the world. When I sit with a couple and discuss their desires for the new space, never, ever have I had a client say "Please make it gray. With just a few touches of brown and maybe a splash of white." Huh-uh. never happens. And here's a bit of irony, check out this image on page 223:

This is dreaming in color??? Come on RH, let's crank it up a bit.

      I have a girls bedroom install this week and trust me, we really 'dreamed in color'! Can't wait to share it with you!     

 With the holiday party invites starting to roll in, it has me thinking of hostess gift ideas. I found some of the sweetest handmade tea towels and napkins over at Oh Little Rabbit. I love the sweet look of hand printed textiles and I also love giving something that is hand made. These organic cotton flour sack towels are screen printed with original hand drawn images using quality fabric inks that stand up to the everyday wear and tear of your kitchen.   

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 Simply My Kitchen gives a step-by step on how to use a tea towel to wrap a loaf of bread.

Martha shows how to wrap up a jam bread package.

Or use a tea towel to wrap around a bottle of wine with a pretty ribbon.

If your hostess is a foodie, how about wrapping it around a favorite cookbook.

Or, if she has a green thumb, wrap the tea towel around a plant container with some twine. 

To see all of the textiles from Oh Little Rabbit, visit their store here. 

 I cherish all of my handmade gifts from my kids. I get so excited each Christmas to open the boxes of ornaments and unwrap the ones that we painted together, the ones they put their tiny paint dipped handprints on, the ones they signed with a barely legible precious signature, and the ones made in their school classes that they proudly and sweetly wrapped and placed under the tree. Oh the sweet memories...

We set out the day after Thanksgiving and picked the perfect tree. With the Christmas music playing, I had all of those precious ornaments hung and the tree lit by 5 o'clock. I sat on the sofa so glad to finally be done and at 5:30 it all came crashing down. I stood over the tree laying in in a pool of water and broken ornaments and not knowing what else to do...cried.  

We stood it up and rebolted it down in the tree base that was advertised as the 'biggest and the best' with no understanding of why, after using it for years, it let us down. It was such a mess. The rug had to dry overnight and the next day the lights were restrung and all of the non-broken ornaments were back in place.

Until last night at 9:30. I kid you not, the tree fell over again. All of the ornaments that survived the first fall weren't so lucky the 2nd time around. After another massive vacuuming, the rug is redrying, and the tree has been stripped of every single ornament and is propped against the back door {I kinda want to chuck it over the back porch}. And the ornaments, well, they are going back in their boxes. I'm simply not willing to do a Round 3. Just call me Scrooge. So I am thinking, this just might be my answer.

A giant adorable fabric tree.

IKEA sells this really sweet tree fabric and it's been quite popular as it has been making the blog circuit. At $6.99 a yard with a 59" pattern repeat, this one won't do any damage if it slides off it's dowel....

 Any other suggestions??

1-Oh Happy Day 2- Cuckoo 4 Design

There was quite the line while checking out Jo-Ann's recently {60% off coupons tends to bring out the crafters in ridiculous numbers} and they offer a great magazine section while you are waiting for one of only  2 cashiers...I was able to catch up on a ton of holiday issues. I was so excited to spot a home decorated by two of my favorite designers, Katie Rosenfeld and Rachel Reider, in Cottages and Bungalows.  

This home to a mom of 2 kids, was decorated with a bright and fresh color scheme and the holiday decor followed suit. There is very little traditional red and green in these decorations, instead corals, turquoise, plums and apple green fill the Massachusetts home. Mix these colors with a ton of geometric fabrics and patterned rugs and you get one heck of a whimsical cheerful home.

Story by Monin Dombrowski, photos by Michael J. Lee, styled by Katie Rosenfeld and Rachel Reider 

To see more, visit Katie's blog here or Rachel's blog here.