* c h a n g e *

It's been a while since I posted, and yet so much has happened since then. The last three months have been a whirlwind, but now that we are more or less settled I thought it was time to start posting again. So back in July I decided to accept a new job offer abroad ...which meant that we had to move to Germany. Or more precisely, to Frankfurt. That was, of course, a huge change for us.

We've been here for a little over a month now and I can say it's been a really good experience so far. I'll try to write more about our first weeks here later on (they were quite surreal sometimes), but for now I'll leave you with a few photos of our new home in beautiful Sachsenhausen.

And although I haven't posted much lately you can also find me on Instagram now (@tania.ho). I decided to create an account to share photos from our trip to the Açores back in June (another trip that I must blog about, it's become one of my favorite places now), and now of our adventures in Germany.

reading corner (new prints)

A while ago I decided it was time to re-decorate our reading corner of the living room a little bit. The wall just seemed too empty, so when I saw these prints on sale at Hidden Eloise I couldn't resist the opportunity.

And that envelope, just too pretty ... I had to keep it, obviously.




All the prints turned out to be just as lovely when I saw them live, and with the right framing (IKEA, of course) I think they really look perfect on that wall.



Have a great weekend, everyone (and although we don't celebrate Thanksgiving here, I've always liked the meaning and symbolism of that particular holiday, so if you're out there celebrating it, then Happy Thanksgiving to you !)

now it feels like x-mas around here ...

The tree is finally up. We were a bit late this year with so much going on, but now it's done and Maggie couldn't be happier because she likes to steal the x-mas ornaments and hide them around the house (and that's why we only have non breakable tree ornaments ...)



I've been seeing so many lovely decoration ideas in blogland lately, but unfortunately I knew I couldn't make them all, so I decided to choose just one and stick with it.
And my favorite was definitely Alex's Owl Pennant (because I do love owls and these are so cute).



It was very easy and a quick project to make, and in no time I had my own pennant (mine says, of course, "Feliz Natal", meaning Merry X-mas in Portuguese).



And maybe, maybe, if I have some time left, I'll make some of Sarah's Stacked Christmas Trees next week, to join the above soft trees made last year. I do have some fabric leftovers I think would be perfect for that, and one can never have too many decorations, right ?





OK, that's it for this week. We'll be taking a short trip to Spain so expect some trip photos on Monday ...

doll quilt ♥

I finally received my doll quilt last week, and I couldn't wait to show you. It came from talented Shannon and it's just beautiful, I'm so in love with it.



I want to hang it properly in the studio soon, but for now it just looks so nice in this little corner.

weekend

on a whim of the moment on Saturday, we decided to paint the rest of the hallway green, to clash with the red. Couldn't take any decent photos to show you the real color, so this is the best I was able to manage.



(Dawn, your beautiful artworks are one of the first things I see every morning)



and some bits of sunday lunch





... and a little wip

the indian quilt

The photos from this exhibit, and the quilt posts from Mary and Rita just reminded me of this indian quilt that I purchased during my last trip to S. Paulo (and which for some reason I forgot to show here).

I'm still hoping that someday I'll be able to make my own quilt - maybe a project for this summer ? Amanda, I see, is planning a summer of quilts, and I can't wait to try Amy's tutorials. Until then, I'm just happy on how this looks on our bed. Beautiful, isn't it ?

sunset origami

in my studio, at sunset ...







origami strings by my friends M. and S.

corners of my home: our framed wall

Not much to report from S. Paulo, I'm still working on this never ending project, so I thought I'd show you another corner of our home that we recently decorated ... here's Sushi to give you a tour.



The entrance to our apartment is a bit uncommon, in the sense that the entrance door leads directly into the living room, and not into a hallway like in most portuguese homes. It takes a while to get used to, but I actually like it that way now.

And to the right of the entrance is the kitchen door, which means we have that part of the room that is actually a passage area. The wall beside it has been quite bare also ... until recently, when we decided it just felt too empty and planned to do something about it.



I got my inspiration from a recent issue of Marie Claire (UK) which featured an article on a scandinavian designer (whom I can't remember the name right now, so sorry) and showed pictures of her amazing country home. One of her living room walls was covered top to bottom with black and white framed photos, and I loved the idea at once.

Not sure if someday this wall will be entirely covered by frames like that, but for now I'm just so happy with this result. The frames are all IKEA, and I mixed family photos with a couple of my favourite prints.



This one is one of my favorite childhood photos, taken back in Mozambique (my grandparents' yard, apparently) and although you can't see him, my dad was holding me up.



The top one here is another favorite, me as a baby with both my parents, which I had already posted before.

In the middle is a photo of a shadowed kiss (yes, that's us) in the gardens of the Al-hambra, in Granada, and below is the black and white version of this one, taken during our last vacation in Lake Bled (Slovenia).



At the bottom, the lighthouse photo which was taken in Newfoundland (more precisely in Woody Point).



The red print is by Rachel Solomon. I just couldn't resist putting it in to clash with the rest of the black and white.
And I'm sure you recognize the bird and teapot print, which is, of course, by Camilla Engman. I love it to pieces.



Finally, on the opposite side, the middle photo was also taken during our Newfoundland trip (at the Terra Nova National Park), and the bottom one is of The Giants Causeway, in Ireland.

I'm planning to eventually replace these photos once in a while by new ones, since we have so many favorites that it's impossible to have them all on display at the same time. For now, though, it just looks perfect to me ...

corners of my home: the bedroom

I've always loved this flickr group. I love browsing through other people's home photos and find inspiration for my own. I love looking at special corners like this this and this (check the cute hello kitty sewing machine), for the same reason I'm obsessed with interior design magazines and have a stack of them on the living room.

Anyway, I thought I'd share here my part of special corners in our house, if only because I love taking photos of spaces and this is such a good excuse.

This is not so much a 'corner' but it's actually our entire bedroom. Quite simple and a bit zen like ... Ahh, can you feel how relaxed I get whenever I go in there ? I especially love the sunlight in this room every afternoon (and apparently the cats do too, since it's their favorite spot for a nap)

The bed is from Design Futon, and it was our first and only choice. I love it, and it's just so comfortable.



More interesting flickr groups to browse:
Living Spaces
Fresh New Spaces
Modern Living Interiors
Show Your House
Decor Love

Have a good weekend, and don't forget to watch the lunar eclipse tomorrow night (via crossplanet)
 

organizing

So I thought I'd tackle some corners of the house this weekend that needed a bit of organizing .. and what a better place to start than my case of trims ?
It was looking a bit messy ...



but after a while it was looking like this



and this



Granted, all the trims wouldn't fit into one case anymore so I had to get a second one (from the kid's section at Zara Home, they have such cute stuff. The purple one came from Maize, and I love it)

Now, if I could only organize the stash of fabrics just as neatly ...

 

flowers at home

valentine flowers


orchid
(came all the way from Brazil and is still thriving)


and our camelia is blooming