You know that one friend you have that leaves a trail of merriment wherever she goes? You know the one who can somehow smile and laugh when she’s stuck for an hour on a stalled subway train?

I just met two of those people.

Seattle-area Interior Designers Piper Salooga and Sara Eizen have fun with what they do. At their latest Home Accessories Swap they scanned [...] Read more »

Artist Profile — Nancy Monsebroten

Award-winning ceramicist Nancy Monsebroten examines things others walk right past. “As a child I was very lucky to grow up on an isolated farm in North Dakota,” said Nancy.

“I was outside all the time, walking through nature and looking at nature. I knew where every flower was and when it bloomed. We didn’t get a TV until I was ten.”

Nancy’s [...] Read more »

by GraceAnn Simoni

Here’s some great home organizing advice and a dash of “how to” motivation from Contributor GraceAnn Simoni, Interior Redesign and Staging Specialist and Instructor from the Chicagoland area. GraceAnn shares budget tips and advice for decorating with your existing furniture and accessories.

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How are those New Year’s resolutions coming along??? Like most of you I resolved to become more organized. My office is [...] Read more »

Put on your artist hats, Design Junkies — this one’s going to be brilliant.

Ever want to create an original design for a beautiful product?

What if you could earn a royalty when your product sells?

Break out those drawing boards — this Challenge is a fantastic opportunity….

Imageglow® Candles are a special, all wax hurricane lantern with artist-designed patterns embedded in the wax, through a patented process. [...] Read more »

It’s too late for these elves to help you with Christmas. But did you know that Etsy has a service called Alchemy that can expand your creative output?

With Alchemy, you dream up an item you want made. You enter a description, your ideal price, and your deadline.

Then wizards from Etsy’s artistic community bid on creating your project. You award the project to the bidder [...] Read more »

Sometimes colorful design inspiration is right in front of you. Like at your kid’s elementary school, for example. Seriously, have you seen some of the art projects that come out of fourth grade? Simple. Colorful. Whipped out with fearless abandon.

Or the cooperative creations auctioned off for school fundraisers? Splashy quilts of scanned watercolors, storage chests bedecked in original hand-painted tiles. Yummy.

Children are amazing, and elementary [...] Read more »

by Susan Serra, CKD

Today our Kitchen Design Expert and Contributor, Susan Serra, CKD helps us with a pesky seasonal occurrence. Known to many as “The Kitchen Designer” for her popular blog, Susan is an award-winning Certified Kitchen Designer, with a national clientele.

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We’re planning our holiday meals, entertaining friends and family, and giving our kitchens a great workout in the process! It’s a time when we [...] Read more »

by Diana Durkes

Today we beautify a thrift-store find with our furniture and accessories makeover specialist, Contributor Diana Durkes. Diana gives “New Life to the Tossed and Found” at her blog, Fine Diving in Chicago.

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For last month’s makeover, I used a thrift shop resource to turn old sweaters into a throw rug. This month, I thought I’d continue the idea of giving new life to [...] Read more »

Sometimes it takes a fresh view of something to appreciate it. Consider Grandma’s crocheted and tatted laces for example. Ceramic A\artist Dana Morton of Earthborne Art in Sonora California uses them in a unique way.

“It all started when I needed favors for our wedding,” said Morton. “I went through a box of old linens that my grandmothers had made, and created little dishes by [...] Read more »

by Diana Durkes

Today let’s work some DIY magic with our furniture and accessories makeover specialist, Contributor Diana Durkes. Diana gives “New Life to the Tossed and Found” at her blog, Fine Diving in Chicago.

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Not that anybody asked me, but in my opinion, crafters are geniuses. They take often overlooked bits of things, parts big and small, and put them together in the most practical and [...] Read more »

You know when your computer hard drive melts down and steam comes out your ears and you want to smash the whole thing up with a hammer? When it happened to Allan Young of Charlottesville, Virginia, he was mad, but then he did something different.

“One day at work I had a hard drive crash and lost a lot of work. Very devastating,”

said Allan.

“I have been [...] Read more »

The other day my buddy Diane said she wanted to set a gorgeous table for the holidays this year. She was taking stock of what she had on hand, and planning to score a few new things to spice up her tablescape.

Leona recently gave us inspiration with the luscious scenes in her tinted glassware post. My daughter and I jumped in and created this fall [...] Read more »

There’s a store you went to once. A marvelous store. In your mind’s eye you can picture the colorful objects, the mix of textures. You always meant to go back.

That’s how it was for me with Berkeley, California’s Ethnic Arts (1314 Tenth Street). Part store, part global museum. All wonderful.

One of numerous fantastical puppets from the Bozo tribe of Mali in West Africa

When [...] Read more »

Artist Profile — Kevin Neelley

It’s clear Kevin Neelley paid attention in Geometry class. That’s a given for the Lexana, Kansas mechanical engineer. But glance at his elegant turned wood vessels and you’ll agree that he must have aced an art class or two.

Sculptural. Graphic.

I stared at each image and kept having the same thought. ‘How did he make that?’

Kevin is a master of [...] Read more »

by Leona Gaita

Today we are once again joined by Leona Gaita, HomeWorkshop.com Interior Design Expert and Contributor. Leona shares with us her inspiring ideas and advice to help us enrich our homes and lives with beauty and elegance.

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A great way to add some rich color to your table for fall, without changing dishes, or breaking the bank, is to add some colorful tinted glassware.

Thanksgiving Table [...] Read more »