Framed Postcard Art

Yesterday, as part of my favorite things, I mentioned how much I love surrounding myself with vacation photos which remind me of happy trips and memories.  Well it's not just photos I love to frame.  One of my favorite souvenirs from vacations are postcards (in addition to the obligatory mug and magnet we always pick up of course).  I'm not big on photo postcards since I'd rather take the photos myself, but I'm always in search of post cards that are art prints.  I look for watercolor and other paintings in postcard format.  I can't always find them, but it's extra special when it's a print drawn by a local artist.  I often see small and large prints being sold in tourist locations, but they can be pricey and I don't usually have a place to hang a larger print.  Instead I look for postcard versions of these prints and for about $1 (or less sometimes) I'm able to get the same interesting art piece that reminds me of a happy trip.

For less than $1 each, I picked up these pretty watercolor postcard prints from San Francisco.  I found them in the "Only in San Francisco" gift shop in Fisherman's Wharf.  Instead of the routine touristy souvenirs they sell there, I was  happy to find these mini art pieces which hang in my kitchen:

This summer, hubby surprised me with a trip to Bermuda (I have the best husband ever, I know) and I added to my kitchen art collection.  They didn't have post cards, so instead I found a set of note cards each with a different picture.  I especially like these because they're prints of paintings done by popular local Bermuda watercolor artist Carole Holding. Instead of paying $2,500 for an original art piece for about $3 I framed 2 of my favorites note cards as my mini art pieces.

My Favorite Decorating Tools and Inspirations

I'm joining in the Favorite Things party at Girly Stuff today and posting some of my favorite home decor items, tools, and inspirations I use around the house:

• Spray Paint:  A $3-$10 bottle of spray paint can easily revitalize tons of things around the house. I've used it to change the look or fix up tons of things around the house (like my indoor fountain).  It's cheap and easy...and when it come's to diy-ing those are 2 things I look for!

• Cordless Drill:  I use this baby, a Hitatchi Cordless Drill, all around the house.  It drills, it screws, it's totally needed for everything from hanging up curtain rods to installing lighting fixtures.  I couldn't be a homeowner without it!

• Houseplants:  I love indoor plants because they can add life to any space and are a great way to add a interest to a room on the cheap.  I recently added an indoor palm tree to my family room and love how it spices up the space.  I also love, love, love the look of ferns on a front porch (like the ones in this photo from Bungalow Bliss)

• Framed Photos:  I love surrounding myself with things that remind me of happy times so I have framed wedding, family, and vacation photos all around my home.  I love art, but hate canned or meaningless art, so to me printing and framing (more about that soon) photos are a wonderful and inexpensive way to add very personal art to the home.

• Summer:  So this isn't really a decorating item or tool, but its an inspiration to me.  Summer is my favorite time of the year so it inspires a lot of my home design.  I love planting flowers, bright colors, colored lanterns, flowing fabrics, tropical design touches, and of course vacation photos.  Even when it's -10 below outside and gets dark at 4pm, I can surrounding myself with summer energy.  (Photo from Garden Fresh Living)
  

Cable and Cord Organizer

My favorite organization tips are ones that are quick and cheap to implement.  After all, organizing your life is supposed to make it simpler and there is nothing simple about taking a day to organize something.  Big organization project that take hours usually end with me making a bigger mess than there was when I started!

So today I have a fast and cheap tip to share.  This one is is pretty simple, but I've always wondered how well these work so I thought I'd share.  The area behind my media stand which holds my cable box and dvd player was a huge mess with all kinds of power and cable cords.  Even though I tried to hide the cords behind the stand, some of them would inevitably peek out and make the whole stand look messy.

So I used a this Montera cable organizer from Ikea to condense the cords into one tube rather than a bunch of cables and wires going in every direction.  I couldn't find this cable organizer on the Ikea website so I'm not sure if they still sell it (my sister gave me this one),  but there are lots of similar cord keepers available for just a few bucks in many stores.

It was pretty simple to use and only took about 10 minutes to gather all of my cords in it correctly (it took me 2 tries since in my initial attempt I just tried shoving the cables into it without regard for the direction they were going in).  After just a couple of minutes I was able to neatly put all of my cords into this tube and lessen the mess.  Although it still doesn't look perfect back there, and I don't think there is any way to make it look 100% neat, it is much more organized and will prevent any cords from sticking out from the media stand for everyone to see.  Mission accomplished!

Have you used any other methods to organize cords or your media stand?