je veux retourner au Canada...

I finally had time to personalize my room a little this weekend. Since I love old vintage shots but don't own a Polaroid camera, I thought I'd do the next best thing and buy a bunch of Polaroid Paris Postcards. Some of the postcards featured some pretty weird pictures though, like that scary kneeling angel man (see image #3 below) so I cut him out and put in a slightly less creepy picture that Grace sent me (look! It's an actually normal picture of us! haha... how rare). Also featured below are: pictures of my family and Randy, a "LAURA" birthday banner that Grace made, and a photo of my lardball of a bunny, MIKEY, whom I miss very much. 

I guess since November is DEATH MONTH - that final, seemingly-endless stretch before the Christmas Holidays - I've been a bit homesick so I guess to help me count down the days til my visit, I put up this whole friends and family SHRINE haha. yes... SHRINE. Makes it all suddenly sound so much creepier. But I do miss all of you back home and JE T'AIME... hahaha.. isn't everything more elegant in French? 

*au revoir pour maintenant... mais je vais revenir bientôt.*

my little cubicle

 Today I spent a very productive few hours organizing my desk and cleaning up all my clutter so I could finally show you my work area. Mom and Dad, this is two months overdue, but this is where I work.

BEFORE...

 AFTER!!!

I bought some "stick-on" floral and wood wallpaper to cover the grey walls of my little cubicle.

You might recognize some of the decorations on my desk (like the felt birds and leaves from this post and of course Mr. Hamlet from this post).

I've also put up some wonderful little post-it messages from my coworkers...

and colourful bird clips!

I haven't decided what to put on that blank blue poster on the left, but I'm thinking that it could turn into an extremely snazzy doodle wall.

So here you go... this is my cubicle!

 I'm quite happy that I finally took some time to personalize my space. Now the real challenge is keeping up this immaculate organization!

I think desk decor can tell you a lot about a person so I'm always curious to see other people's work spaces. What does your work area look like, and how do you personalize it?

a cup of nostalgia

I have a bad habit of buying pretty little trinkets to decorate my room while the more necessary task of cleaning it lies forgotten. However, I do think that these teacups, baskets, and boxes will eventually become USEFUL because I intend to use them to organize my jewelry and store other small items. 

Anyways, I couldn't help but set up all my thrift store purchases and take some pictures because they just all go together so nicely (yet another way to procrastinate from doing any real cleaning)...

I gave the gorgeous gold and turquoise teacup to a friend for her birthday (it's actually a rare find that's worth $40+). The other teacup is my own, which I use to hold some of my rings. Most of these boxes and baskets were under $3 so they're really inexpensive.

side notes: I didn't find all these items all on one trip. These are all collected from different thrift stores over time. And of course, these are just SOME of the decor items in my room - I only put together the ones that had a kind of shabby chic feel. My room isn't as girly as these pictures show and I think it would look like a CREEPY DOLLHOUSE if all my decor was like this. 

lesson of the day: thrift for cute boxes IN MODERATION, people. 

DIY: flower lights

I love having strands of Christmas lights in my room all year round. They give my room a warm golden glow that takes the attention away from the chaotic mess on my floor. But I also wanted to add a little floral flair to my lights, so I came up with this simple 3step mini-project below...

*Notes and tips:

1) The strand of lights I bought is actually a little bit daintier and more delicate-looking than the standard Christmas lights. I got mine from Michael's. 2) Flipping the flower inside out is optional. I like it inside out because it makes the flowers look more like little buds. 3) If you're worried about the flowers falling off, you can add a little bit of double-sided tape to the light strands so that the flowers will stick onto them.

I just had a red garland lying around so I used what I had, but I think you could make some really gorgeous light garlands if you used flowers of different sizes, textures, or colours (flowers made out of tulle or chiffon would be amazing!). If you do decide to try this, take a picture and send it to me. I'd LOVE to see what you come up with! 

-laura :)