The clutter in your shoe box

Over the past few months while I was A wall here on the blog I have gained an increasing interest in interior design/decorating. As weird as it sounds I find myself thinking about it. A LOT. Analyzing different spaces while I slip off to sleep and constantly trying to come up with ways to tweak this or that. Am I weird? Is it a phase? WHO KNOWS. But I am rolling with it. And I like it. Scratch that, I LOVE it. And because it is constantly on my mind it was only a matter of time before it leaked here onto the blog.

Recently I have come up with a few ideas and inspirations and I wanted to share them with you. So I will be doing a little series this week. The series will be on connecting the places you go and your home in a fun, creative, economical way.

On our latest trip down the CA 1 I decided that I wanted to find something to remember our trip by. Not just something to shove in a shoe box or clutter my purse like I usually do (does anyone else hold onto their airline tickets? For like years? Please say I am not the only one). I wanted something I could display in our home. Sure I there are always pictures, but more often then not they never leave my hard drive.

On our trip we stopped at a gift shop. It was full of beautiful art, pottery, and quilts done by locals. I would have loved to get my hands on some of it but the price was a little steep for my liking. After some looking I found the art I had been eying but in the form of a card. The cards were only $3 a piece. Which for one card isn't the best price but if you think of it as art then you really can't beat $3 now can you?



These are the two cards we picked out. We loved the colors and how they really did remind us of our trip. I am in the process of hunting down frames at the thrift store and then I have the perfect wall in our front room for them to go on (watch for pictures!).



Here is another example of art in our house that we got on one of my first trips into San Francisco. We stopped at a darling little shop and I saw this map. When I looked closer I realized it was a sheet of nice wrapping paper. At $4 a sheet I wasn't about to get wrap happy. But $4 for a piece of art to hang on my wall, now we're talking. Once I found the perfect frame (IKEA) I trimmed the sides of the map and framed it. Easy art that reminds me of our trip and is a great conversation piece.