Sure, you’re forced to take down the ghosts and fuzzy spiders (news flash: your neighbors are pissed if you haven’t done so), but some of the seasonal elements we put up to get in the mood  should endure until the end of the year, if not beyond.

Here is my list of favorite affordable decorative displays for the festive and frugal in all of us.

1. Lanterns

Rice paper lanterns bobbing outside (with solar lights) or in your rooms make a huge, happy statement. I love the cylinder shapes with Asian motifs like the …

Tags: beeswax , candles , cards , Christmas , coasters , Conserve , decor , decorating , dishes , fabric , fall , flowers , foliate , glassware , green , Halloween , home , house , lanterns , organic , peach glass , photo display , photo walls , photos , pinecones , pumpkins , recycle , reuse , rice paper , runners , seashells , Seasons , sew , stringing cards , table design , Thanksgiving , vintage , winter

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There are some of us who have cut waaaaay back, but just can’t quit cold turkey. And I don’t mean smoking, although I did quit recently. (Yay for me!)

The can’t quit I’m referring to here is shopping. I can admit my faults and this is certainly one of them. I love to shop for clothes. But before you throw your arms up and start spouting off at my wasteful ways…I always, definitely, without a doubt, no excuses or exceptions – shop green.

Right …

Tags: eco , fashion , green shopping , handbag , poncho , vintage

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My partner in Sixties vintage couture crime, artist Joan Davis, called me the other day and said I had to check out Torso Vintages, an ultra cool used couture outlet in San Francisco’s Union Square.

In town just a few days to pedal her flower-powered paintings, Joan had immediately sensed where to dig up archaeological relics of Pucci and Gucci – the way my pug can sniff a German Shepherd or hamburger a mile away.

I jotted down the name to this source for  shifts and clutches. Sure, there are ample …

Tags: bags , classics , clutches , couture , designer , fashion , Gucci , jewelry , leather , Pucci , retro , Sixties , sunglasses , vintage

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Sit on the grass; look out at the trees; wake up in the field; float on the water.

These four frolics in nature are woven into the fabric of the vintage French furniture reclaimed by Chair Couture, a delightful contemporary source that seeks to make stuffy, highbrow seating more down to earth.

In salvaging original French antiques for her quirky collection, owner Margaret Elman carefully selects fabrics that fits the mode. She says the recycled polyester or organic cotton used is derived from photographs of nature.

It’s all designed to bring the …

Tags: dandelions , fabric , French furniture , furniture , grass , green , nature , ocean , photograph , polyester , recycle , upholstery , vintage

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With all things digital nowadays, it’s not surprising that my friend’s 12-year-old didn’t know you could still shoot 35 mm slides. Some of us remember when you couldn’t shoot anything but…

…but let’s move on. I have fond family memories of my dad’s slide shows. He’s a photo fanatic who never went anywhere without a camera or two. And much to my mother’s dismay, an entire wall of our garage was stacked with boxes of his slide carousels.

This would constitute a gold mine …

Tags: eco , fashion , handbag , recycled , travel , vintage

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Do you have your email set up for Google alerts? I do. One of them is for “eco-fashion” (go figure, right?).

A few days ago I got an email talking about Oxfam Great Britain’s secondhand and ethically-produced clothing you can buy online and was flabbergasted by how great the pieces were in both sections.

I’m ashamed to say I never knew the same Oxfam has over 700 shops, including specialist shops for books, clothes and music all over the world, which sell many fair-trade items and clothing. This all started in 1948.

According to …

Tags: eco fashion , ecommerce , oxfam , retail , reuse , shopping , vintage , web

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What would you pay for a Park Avenue home originally designed by Sister Parish and Albert Hadley in the late 1960s for Brook Astor? Believe it or not, you still have to pay through the nose and cough up many millions for such a primo property, but it’s going down, down, down.

Originally listed at $46 million (well, prices are a bit higher in NYC), the Huffington Post reports the 14-room property was slashed 37% to $29 million. Hey, at that price it’s being called a “fire sale!”

On …

Tags: Albert Hadley , Brook Astor , John Lennon , New York apartments , Sister Parish , vintage

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If it’s possible to lust after vintage linens, then I’m a lech! I have a closet in my dressing room specifically for storing my little secret. Included is an amazing collection of embroidered pillowcases and dishtowels my Grandma Zelda made back in the day at her lake house in Wisconsin. I also have various quilts and blankets amassed over the years, some I continue to use when forced to go downstairs to watch TV when I cannot sleep at night.

I’m always happy to stumble upon old cotton and linen treasures, either at secondhand …

Tags: bedding , blankets , pillows , quilts , UK , vintage , vintage scarves

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When fashion designers go residential, their sense of color and texture don’t always feel quite at home. Especially when it comes to bedding, it can feel – well, a bit sleepy. Not so with never neutral Trina Turk, whose punchy patterns enter a room with the sock-it-to-me frivolity of Joanne Whirley – euphoric, mod, and unabashedly uncorked with personality.

In fact, the shag carpet appeal of the Laugh-In era has come alive in Palm Springs, the new Mid-Century mecca where Trina Turk Residential has opened right next door to …

Tags: Brown Jordan , Burlingame , fashion , home decor , indoor-outdoor fabric , organic fabric , Palm Springs , retro , Schumacher , Trina Turk , vintage

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