Inspiration

Every room in my house has an inspiration corner.

 this is a place where i put all of the items that are my inspiration for the overall design and theme of the rooms.

Bathroom

 African themed

The beads are handmade and i believe are actually from Africa. An aunt gave them to me many moons ago

The floor mat is made from dollar store bamboo place mats

Toothbrush and soap holders from  dollar store

Canvas artwork from Ross(99cents) other artwork from dollar store items)

Current project is our shower curtain rings ( in progress because I'm currently out of twine)

Children's Bedroom

Liam's Side

Liam's side of the room is mostly inspired by color and by punk and funk

Suriana's Side

India inspired

this book led to the inspiration

( plus my daughter is half Indian)

Peacock feathers, gold, lotus blossoms and elephants....

the table cloth is actually waiting for a table to be used on in her room...

Painting her bed frame! ( in progress- update later)

Lots of lanterns, handmade pillows and bright colors

( the layout of the room has been changed since these pics were taken, update later)

Bedroom/Living room

( the reason it is both is because some of my decor for the bedroom is in the living room. i don't have enough display room or shelves in the bedroom)

This is my Asian decor in the living room.

the sake set was $6 at the flea market

( has one more pour and 2 more cups)

This is the decor above my headboard.

the pic is actually a postcard my husband had before we met!

the roses are palm leaves i got in Santa Cruz a few years ago

My pride and joy

a beautiful jewelry boy. found in a pawn shop for $15

smells like roses inside

i love the beautiful layer work done in the doors

Gotta have my Buddha

(he looks like he might need a bath)

LOVED Memoirs of a Geisha!! own the movie too

Found this book at goodwill for 50 cents.

Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes is a non-fiction children's book written by American author Eleanor Coerr and published in 1977.

The story is of a girl, Sadako Sasaki, who lived in Hiroshima at the time of the atomic bombing by the United States. She developed leukemia from the radiation and spent her time in a nursing home folding paper cranes in hope of making a thousand, which supposedly would have allowed her to make one wish, which was to live. However, she managed to fold 644 before she became too weak to fold any more, and died shortly after. Her friends and family helped finish her dream by folding the rest of the cranes which was buried with Sadako and build a statue of Sadako holding a giant golden paper crane in Hiroshima Peace Park after she died. Now every year on O Bon Day, which is a holiday in Japan to remember the fallen ones of the bombings, thousand of people leave paper cranes near the statue. On the statue is a plaque: "This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace on Earth."

Beautiful story and beautiful artwork

Ring-a-ding

Ive been in the process of cleaning and reorganizing my home.

That includes my crafts supplies. I'm trying to stash bust.

I had some hemp twine my husband bought a while ago( planning on making a macrame/ hemp necklace). That never happened so the twine was just sitting around waiting to be used.

My bathroom is currently African themed

 I've been wanting to 'spruce'  up the plain ole shower curtain.

 I decided to decorate the shower curtain rings! they were a plain ole clear and very boring. 

I started wrapping the twine around the rings (using hot glue to keep it in place)

*(grungy nails, i know..like i said I've been working alot lately)

I added a few of my wood beads for accents..

and voila! some cool looking African inspired curtain rings.

 i like the way they turned out..only had enough to cover 4 so I've gotta go buy more twine...

Take me on Safari

My husband and I both enjoy the different cultures of the world. our dream is to one day have a home that has the feel of touring the world. my daughter is indian and will have an india inspired room, I love anything asian, so our bedroom will be asian inspired, and so on and so forth.

no matter where i go i like to keep and eye out for even the littlest pieces that can add to the overall look. Im kind of a frugal person so my favorite stores to look are the dollar store, walmart, biglots, and even consignment shops/ goodwill. you dont have to spend alot of money to make a big bang to a rooms look. currently we have been working on making our bathroom safari/african inspired. my husband already had a few pieces, which we used as inspiration. weve been adding to it piece by piece and are getting close to the look we want.

The Mask and candle holder and picture were our original inspiration (from ross). The candle, bamboo and fan leaf were all from the dollar store!!

The holders were from the dollar store and were originally a light wood color. i painted them a dark brown with 57 cent paint from walmart, and voila! a perfect blend to our bathroom. great for honding toothbruses and soap.

The 'rug' is made from dollar store bamboo placemats sewn together. the bottom is covered with no slip cabinet liner to keep it from.. well... slipping.

The most recent purchases for the bathroom have been the shower curtain ( $8 from biglots) and the towels ($3 a piece from walmart).Im hoping to add accents to the bottom of the towels and also to the shower curtain. their a bit too plain for my tastes. lol. Maybe something similar to the pic below.....

Im also hoping to Frame the mirror with a mosiac frame, and when we move im looking to place a mirror in the frame to hang anywhere in the bathroom in our next home...but thats a future project.... ill update when i start that one.

UPDATE!!!

Ive recently added new 'artwork' to our bathroom...

I Found these awesome frames at the dollar store and this cool scrapbook paper. im looking to add a pic of a zebra and maybe a elephant to the upper and lower pics.

*the canvas art was a piece i found at ross for 97 cents!!

I loved the frames so much i had to get more!! while shopping at the dollar store i found the frames and a bamboo weave placemat, and even the 'tropical' leaves! i cut the placemat to size and frame it all together! turned out awesome. havent decided what to put in the center frame...