All Around the World

So hot right now, from here via Pinterest.

I have a serious thing for maps and globes. I don't really care about their utility-factor, except for the rare times I need to remember exactly where Burundi is. Mostly I like the idea of just looking at their lovely colors, reminiscing about favorite countries and pondering just how much the world has changed since the USSR, Rhodesia and Yugoslavia existed.

Though sometimes I want to put on a blindfold and throw a dart at them, just to choose my next trip destination...

Anyways, maps and globs are having a big moment in the design world right now. This I know not because I am any kind of mover or shaker in that world, but simply because I have a lot of free time and spend that time reading design-y blogs which inject useless words like mid-century regency, greige, and bananas (as an exclamation) into my vernacular.

Artsy-cool, from here via Pinterest.

Love the wallpaper/map combo, from here via Pinterest.

My ab-fab, from here, reposted everywhere.

All of these interiors make me desperate to embark on a map/globe hunt throughout every nearby flea market and thrift store (and maybe some unsuspecting people's attics.)

And if I happen to find a not-so-truly vintage map or less-than-perfect globe, I may consider it for one of these reincarnations.

DIY globe clock, from here.

Use the other half to make a globe bowl, from here.

Emily Henderson's family of globe-men for the holidays.

British artist TerrorDome makes these sweet, customizable collages of couples - cut out of maps of their childhood homes. awwwwww.....



psimadethis.com created this neat map-tray tutorial.



What do you think? Eager to add some maps or globes to your home? Where should I go to find my own ... I wantsssss it!



An Oasis in a Bed Cover

I'm redecorating my apartment. Actually, that is misleading. I'm decorating it for the first time, no "re" about it. My roommate moved out a few weeks ago taking all the furniture I have lived with (and loved) for the past year. So now it's my turn to put on my big girl pants and try to create the apartment I imagined back when I promised myself that if I could just make it through one more night with the outrageously loud roommate, or the dangerously lofted dorm bed, or the overly-excited-that-you're-living-at-home-again parents, I'd one day have an apartment all to myself. Albeit, that apartment looked like something out of "Sex and the City" and not my little Hoosier dream house, but I'm happy.

All my favorite things in my apartment remind me of somewhere else, for example:

My Bedding

I LOVE my bedding so much. It's from Bed, Bath and Beyond (as is the image - no, I do not make my bed that well). It reminds me of the gates of an Indian castle at sunset on a cool summer evening but there are no feral dogs or dust, just mirrored silk slippers and the rustle of saris.

Stuck in Customs via Pinterest

I also went a little crazy and got the matching shower curtain. It's not exactly the same - more greens and blues and no red- but it's the same cool arched paisley from the duvet cover. Add some blue towels, a little shaggy rug and we're getting into serious hotel-bathroom territory here (i.e. luxury).

My Shower Curtain

I'll be back with more updates on what I have done and hope to do in my apartment. I'm excited to make a little international oasis, full of memories of my favorite places!