Oh my gosh - did you know that TOMORROW is Halloween??  Ok, I guess I did too, but somehow I thought I had at least another day!  Wow.  I don't know where my brain is these days.

I don't do a lot of Halloween decorating - I like to decorate for autumn and then add little "spooky" touches here and there for Halloween.  Well, this year I got started, but with the craziness of Liam's first birthday and my family visiting, I completely forgot about it.

Yesterday I found some fun black tulle and black spiderweb lace at "The Pick" for $1, so I grabbed it up quick and decided to at least get something up on our front door.  My super-last-minute non-planning resulted in a giant bow that I hung on the front door with fishing line.  It took me less than 5 minutes and looks way cute.  Now I'm ready for all the trick-or-treaters!   :)

So, I was going to give you a fantastic DIY on how to tie just such an amazing bow in under 30 seconds... Unfortunately, I severely burned my hand while making dinner tonight and it looks like I'm not going to be doing much of anything right now.  :(  I'll have to add the DIY later, when I'm not typing with one finger.

Are you the type that loves to go all-out with your Halloween decor, or are you more like me, and keep it fairly minimal?  Good luck with any last minute decorating!

Stripes are a great way to grab your attention in a room.  Vertical stripes on a wall draw your eyes upward, making the room appear taller, while horizontal stripes can visually double the length of the room.  Stripes can be formal or fun, classy or playful, sophisticated or whimsical, subtle or bold.

Yesterday was the first fully nice day we've had for a while.  There's been a lot of rain this summer - in fact, I'm currently sitting in the dark watching a fantastic thunderstorm.  Beautiful!

Anyway, since it was so great, we decided to visit Shevchenkosky Grove.  It's a park here in Lviv that's just full of old Ukrainian-style log cabins from the 1800's.  They are positively darling!  I love the effort that went into making them beautiful.  Many of them had a front porch and beautiful carvings on the pillars.  There was also a huge wooden church - one of the most beautiful and architecturally interesting that I've seen!

I can't get over how great these houses are.  This is one of the things that I was really looking forward to seeing here in Ukraine... and subsequently share with all of you.  The woodwork and textiles here are so intricate and rich.  I'll be looking for ways (soon) to incorporate some of this rich history into my designs.

Here are some of my photos from yesterday.  Raw and unedited.  :)