the happy living Blog

the selby in london

Some of these images make me mourn the loss of my books that have departed.  They are great nonetheless.

via The Selby

 

 

 

 

 

renovate-decorate budget worksheets

This file for me is a work in progress really, but I feel like I have finally got it to a point where it might be useful for you.  It is actually really simple and does not provide you with anything that a scratch piece of paper and a calculator could not do.  I personally just like to have my information organized and easy to update and read and have found Excel to be a useful tool to do that with some really basic formulas.  The spreadsheet file was created with Excel 2003.  You will find that I set up lots of tabs, one for each room of our house.  You can delete or rename each tab to correspond to your own home.  You will notice that right now the sheets are set up as line items for materials to buy for d.i.y. projects.  I envision that you would add a line item for each contractor that you may hire to do any of the labor for you with your finish and decorating materials below that you will purchase yourself.  I.e. you may hire a plumbing contractor to redo your bathroom and many times the cost of the the tub and toilet are included in his price, but things like the towel bars and shower curtain are not.

This is the first time I am using the file upload feature, so let me know if it there are any problems.

Download Happy living reno-deco worksheets

Jenny Lee-Katz fabrics

I love these eco-friendly fabrics.  I love even more that Jenny Lee-Katz is based in Glenmoore, PA which is only like 20 minutes away from me.

 She also sells pillows and bags on her website.

 

via Daily Candy.

jonathan adler's NEW salt + pepper shakers

love these.


Jonathan Adler

wire organizer

I get a lot of questions on flickr about the wall-hung wire organizer I have in my office.

It came from the 'old' days of Martha By Mail.

I always refer everyone to this Good Thing from the August 08 issue of MSL.  It is a really simple DIY project that is soo sweet.


I also think chicken wire is a fun idea, with or without a frame, but this one (below) from kandeland is super cute.

more photo galleries

simple clip frames

black and white

art postcards... I also love this photo for a thousand other reasons.  The wall color, the floor, the table, the chairs...

The great thing about all of these is that they are relatively inexpensive (or even free depending on what you already have on hand) to execute.

credit: Living Etc.

clocks

For Christmas, I got this very cool vintage red clock from my brother, the same brother that got me this very cool radio.  Anyway, I saw this picture below from Domino and thought it was a nice idea.  Sometime I'll show you my red clock.

Revisions Design Studio : porcelain egg votive candles

These are just gorgeous and made from 100% US grown soy wax (which burns clean and clear).  The egg shells are porcelain and can be reused once the candles burn away.

 

from the Revisions Design Studio etsy shop.

I had gotten away from using candles around the house.  I feel a revival coming on!  Candles really are wonderful, especially when the vessel is beautiful as these are.

I just love a good wall calendar

Miriam Bereson's Yearly Planner

   

click on the image on the right to view larger.

via sweet fine day

decluttering magazines

For a long time I have been a magazine junkie.  It all started with Seventeen and it was down hill from there.  Until recently I had baskets of partially or unread mags strewn about the house.  Over the holidays I went through most of them and they went out with the recycling last week.  I have also started canceling a few of them as they come up for renewal.

I consider this a decluttering of the mind as much as it is of the house.  I truly believe there is only so much information and inspiration that one person can absorb in any given amount of time.  I spend so much of my time on the internet these days where I feel as though I get most of what I need there.  As I write this, the rumors of Domino's closing have come true today.  I wonder if it is just a sign of the times.  Something is happening with print media.  But I digress.

Having a few subscriptions to the magazines that I really delve into when they arrive means less baskets around the house to trip over.  They can be displayed in fun ways too, really showing off the gorgeous covers each month.

I like this display and photo taken by Mika.

 

Mika has a lovely blog!