Whenever I travel, I always buy a piece of art of the place I visited. I love having paintings on my walls that have meaning and hold special memories.

Wandering the Halifax waterfront today, I came across beautiful art by artist Lindsay Hicks. She was perched along the wall, painting, and had several pieces on display. I love the way she captures the feeling of my home, Nova Scotia. 

I was working on a tabletop recently for Cityline, and I wanted to use black vases for a centrepiece, but I could not find any. So I did what any DIYer would do and I headed to Value Village to pick up some inexpensive, vintage-style vases. I chose five. I like to work with odd numbers and I liked the varying heights and styles of these:

I have had a passion for two things my whole life: beautiful design and children.

It's no secret that I love being creative. And now that my sons are getting older, I get to share this passion with them. Watching their pride when they create something—whether it's a playdough snake, a painting or a model car—is amazing. I really try to make each project we make together have meaning. Whether it connects us to an event, a passion of theirs or a vacation, it's so special to have a story connected to each piece.

DIY.

Why is this such a dirty word* in the design world? Time after time I see tweets, blog posts and Facebook updates criticizing DIY.

Fine. Not everyone likes it. I get it. What I want to know is, why do people have to put something down if they don't like it?

Twitter has the amazing power of bringing people together. Often it can be because of trivial things like a reality tv star's current antics. Sometimes, though, it unites us in a much more powerful way. 

It's no secret that I am a huge fan of David Dawson's art. His piece Muskoka Autumn is just about the prettiest thing ever, don't you agree? It is just such a happy painting. You can find more of his fabulous work here.

Making your own cake stands is a fun and easy way to add colour to a dessert table. This is one of the easiest projects I have ever done! 

What you need:  

Bases like these mini plaques from Michaels or the white corner trim piece from Home Depot:

Pedestals like these table legs I found at Home Depot:

Ombre means shaded or graduated tone of colour. This hot trend is everywhere from home decor, party decorations to fashion.

I love the soft look of the gradual shades of colour in each of the images below. Which one is your favourite? I have wanted to try a project like the dresser below for awhile and the balloon wall is such a fun idea!

I hate our flooring on our main floor. It is laminate. Ugly, orangey laminate. We will replace it with hardwood at some point, but that is not in our budget at the moment so I had a moment of genius.

Or so I thought.

I have always loved decorating with white and my home is full of white furniture. It goes with everything and brightens any room. Here are my top tips for using white in your home:

I have recently discovered Royal Design Studio and fell in love with their line of stylish and pretty stencils. My first project was a bookcase that I loved so I was feeling brave enough to try something a little different.

I love this time of year. The weather is getting warmer {sort of}, the windows are open {sometimes}. For some reason, every spring, I also decide that my house needs a design makeover. I want to paint, add new, more colourful, fabrics and switch up the accessories. Sadly, I can't redo the design scheme every year so I bring spring into each room in a few small, but effective ways.

First of all, I do a major spring clean. As a part of this I also edit the accessories in each room. Some get put in storage in the basement and others get donated. 

It's no secret that I love shopping for vintage decor for my home. Yard sales are a great resource for antique pieces, unique finds and your next DIY project. This spring, on May 26th, you can shop for the perfect something and support the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation by taking part in Yard Sale for the Cure.

There is an art to creating a perfectly-styled bookcase. It's one that I struggle with sometimes, so I went online to find beautiful expamples and thought carefully about what made each one 'work.' 

The One of A Kind Show was amazing this year. I went to support my friend, Christine, of the fabulous blog Bijou and Boheme, who was presenting on the main stage. As a lucky bonus I found some of the most fabulous decor finds I have seen in a very long time.

Decorating eggs is a perfect activity to do with the entire family and are an easy way to add a little Easter to any room. There are so different ways to decorate eggs from painting to dying to covering in fabric. Here are my top 5 DIY Easter egg ideas:

Paper-covered eggs 

It's no secret that I love vintage decor but sometimes I am not sure how to use some accessories without making my home look dated. Then I came across this photograph in the April issue of Chatelaine magazine: 

For those of us that love to travel, decorating with maps is the perfect way to incorporate your passion into your decor. They are meaningful, colourful and come in a variety of designs and sizes.

There are many ways you can use maps to decorate your home. The easiest way, of course, is to frame them. I used my favourite frames, Ribbas from Ikea, for each project below. 

I recently gave a bookcase in my living room new life by adding a coat of paint and a gorgeous Royal Design Studio to the back.

I love the results but I also want to share other, less permanent, ways to add some colour and pattern to the back of a bookcase.