Plant Styling – This is my hobby.

Variegation Consternation

Like most people, I love natural light. It’s important for my home to have lots of windows and the blinds raised at all times of day.

I don’t like having indoor lights on when the sun is out.

I’m always going behind my housemates and flipping the lights off.

We have lots of plants in our house that benefit from all the windows and natural light, but as my husband propagates and collects more, he’s needing to hang and shelve them in darker areas; we’re running out of prime window real estate.

His solution is to install grow lights — special lighting that work just like the sun for plants.

The hanging grow light in our primary bedroom.

I know that my ideal design aesthetic can never be achieved whilst sharing space with an adult man, two teenage boys and a toddler. I know this.

But, the introduction of the grow lights was simply something I could not have foretold.

To me, they’re giving: science experiment. Nail tech lighting. Clinical.

I want soft sunlight that casts a gentle shadow as the day progresses.

A vintage lamp found at The Cozy Cottage in Lake Worth Beach transformed into a grow light set up.

The light these grow lights cast are literally disturbing to my eye. Am I being dramatic?

The lights are making a big difference for the plants they’re nourishing. One pothos in particular is growing orangey looking leaves now — I’m told this is called variegation.

This is extremely exciting for my husband, prompting him to want to install more grow lights throughout the house.

Much to my consternation.

Last week’s thrifted ‘fits:

Baby girl and I scored clothes, stationery, and several items for my thrifted Christmas baskets at Goodwill last week:

>> Watch Video Thrift Haul HERE! <<

Dress – Max Studio, Source: Goodwill West Palm Beach

Earrings from Community Thrift Store West Palm Beach

Dress – O.p.t., Source: Goodwill West Palm Beach

Dress – Universal Thread , Source: Goodwill West Palm Beach

Top – Milk Designs (handmade by local designer – formerly a vintage tablecloth!), Source: The Rust Market Lake Park

Rapunzel costume found at Goodwill West Palm Beach

Little Mermaid costume found at Goodwill West Palm Beach, Ruby slippers too!

Top – Max Studio London, Source: Goodwill West Palm Beach, Earrings Source: The Church Mouse Palm Beach

Eclectic Charm

The best compliment I’ve received about my decor lately is that I don’t decorate to be “on trend,” I just fill my home with things I love — whether they “go together” or not (thanks, Becky!).

Macrame Garland gifted from my mom, Source: WPB Green Market

It’s not that I don’t care about trends, I’m not that cool. I do care and pay attention to what’s current.

I’m influenced by trends all the time, but I also know I won’t ever have a consistently themed home (like cottage, bohemian, modern farmhouse, mid-century modern, etc.).

Examples of my decorating flair are the garland, mobiles, and charms I hang everywhere.

I love to adorn our plants and hang them from the ceilings and in our windows.

Indian Bird Charm, Source: Jupiter Medical Thrift

I collect my charms and garlands while thrifting and traveling, so there’s usually a story or memory attached to them.

Handmade Shell & Glass Bead Charm, Source: Stone Button Studio

Ignore the dusty leaves – this lady doesn’t like to dust!

Vintage papier-mâché Vegetable Garland, Source: The Nearly New Shop, Shell & Woven Palm Leaves Mobile gifted from my mom, Source: Mom & Co. Curaçao

Handmade Agate Charm, Source: Stone Button Studio (the very first charm I hung in the house!)

Woven Palm Leaves Bird & Fish Mobile, Source: A little cafe in Guadeloupe

Shell Charm, Source: Trinkets & Treasures Lake Worth Beach

Tassel Charms, Source: Stone Button Studio, Wooden Bird Mobile, Source: Roadside shop in Guadeloupe

Bohemian might come closest to my style – what do you think?

This week’s thrifted ‘fits & treasures round-up:

Shirt – Bella Tu, thrifted & gifted from a friend ❤️, Wooden Parrot Necklace, Source: WPB Antiques Festival (Pants aren’t thrifted but are from a vendor at the WPB Green Market!)

Vintage Glass Fruit Earrings, Source: WPB Antiques Festival

Sterling Silver Shell Earrings, Source: Stone Button Studio

Swimsuit – Tommy Bahama (reversible!), Source: Goodwill

Hand Painted Italian Serving Dish, Source: Goodwill

My PRIZE at $3 from Goodwill – gorgeous shell wreath

Terra cotta pots and boxes of taper candles, Source: Goodwill

Vintage Ice Bucket (has little “m” on top!), Source: Goodwill

Dining Details

We’ve upgraded our dining area with a bargain box store deal and thrifted find, and it’s lookin’ pretty cute 💅🏽.

We moved into our new build, cookie cutter house in 2020, and all I wanted was to thrift my lil heart out and fill each space with vintage and eclectic character.

Couldn’t do that in 2020. But we still managed to find an awesome dining table on Wayfair — the distressed wood is perfect for having kids and pets, the marks and scratches just blend in.

Our original chairs were also from Wayfair and we liked them, but they were falling apart from, well, kids and pets.

We found eight chairs that I’m pretty sure are like…event chairs?…on OfferUp for $120 and snagged them for our dining area.

I’m sure you’ve sat in a chair like this at a wedding at some point.

Six around the table + two extra for when we have guests = ideal.

The brown wood vibes with the table and our new rug, which has its own story.

My mom was exploring the Wellington Mall a few weeks back and found a huge jute rug for $99 at City Furniture.

This steal was nestled in a section where they sell marked down show room pieces.

It blends perfectly with my style – I love it!

My husband hates jute, which is rude, but I appreciate how natural and forgiving it is.

The backdrop of our dining area is a plant project/idea of my husband’s. He installed the wooden lattice and hung two pothos to create a low-maintenance living wall.

It has taken a while for the vines to grow out, but now that they have, it almost feels like an art installation.

This week’s thrifted ‘fits & treasures round-up:

Office outfit! Shirt – Red Haute, Source: Goodwill, Pants – J. Crew, Source: Thrifted and gifted from a friend ❤️

Belt and Bag – Unknown, Source: Goodwill, Shoes – Bernardo (retail $348!!!), Source: Goodwill, Earrings – handmade/upcycled, Source: Stone Button Studio

Dress/Swim Coverup – Unknown, Source: Thrifted and gifted from a friend ❤️

Baskets from Goodwill (tall one thrifted and gifted from a friend ❤️)

Adorable hat added to baby girl’s room, Source: Goodwill

My built-in thrift buddy 🤙🏽

Thrifted Brunch Table

We had our neighbors for brunch over the weekend, so I used it as an excuse to pull out thrifted wares and style them!

My husband is the brunch chef in our house. He invited the neighbors to come at 12:00 pm. He *started* chopping the potatoes at 11:40 am.

🥴🥴🥴

It drove me temporarily insane but at least my table was cute.

Here’s the tablescape tour:

Candle holder – Lake Park Rust Market, Pink taper candle – Goodwill, Vintage Pyrex mixing bowl – Goodwill, Vintage dessert plates – Goodwill, Dinner plates – Goodwill, Paper napkins – a TJ Maxx impulse purchase

My husband propagates plants, so we always have jars of cuttings around the house and I usually have one or two as the centerpiece of our dining table. I found him this new propagation vessel at Goodwill this week!

I found the mixing bowl and plates at Goodwill on two separate occasions – they match perfectly!

Can’t have brunch without donuts! Pink serving plate – thrifted and gifted from my mother-in-law. Adorable stone plate (soon to hold bacon!) from Goodwill.

No vintage at the table for the kiddos, I’m afraid – non breakables only.

But they grabbed their donut holes from these cuties I picked up at Goodwill this week.

Water served from an IKEA jug found at Goodwill.

This week’s thrifted ‘fits & treasures round-up:

Dress – Printfresh, Source: Goodwill, Bracelets – Unknown, Source: The Nearly New Shop

Dress – Charlotte Kellogg Palm Beach , Source: The Nearly New Shop, Earrings – Unknown, Source: The Church Mouse

Tunic I used as a swim cover up (has pockets!) – J.Crew, Source: Goodwill

Adorable set, Source: Jupiter Medical Thrift

Some may be skeeved by a thrifted swimsuit, but I have my cleaning methods and own many! This one is Sanctuary, Source: Goodwill

Cute lil vase I’m using for baby girl’s toothbrush holder, hand painted, Source: Goodwill

Set of 4 Anthropologie bowls, Source: Goodwill

Set of six Queen’s salad plates, Source: Goodwill

Starfish drink stirrers, Source: Goodwill, Vintage basket, Source: The Cozy Cottage Lake Worth Beach

I used this adorable basket to store towels for post brunch pool hangs, Source: The Nearly New Shop

It was such a pleasure to share my thrifted finds with friends over food (say that 3x fast) – hope you enjoyed, too!

Monstera Deliciosa, Chaos Gloriosa

Rabies. Roundworm. Salmonella. Giardiasis.

Racoons carry and transmit all of these things. I hadn’t heard of that last one, but it’s parasites found in contaminated water that, if come into contact with, can lead to major tummy rumbles.

One would not want one’s three-year-old getting giardiasis, would one?

I live in a cookie-cutter, concrete block, basic-b house with my family, and one way we’ve carved out an aesthetic that combats the millennial gray of things is by decorating with green, live plants in every room and on every possible surface. Plant hoarding, if you will.

My husband is the horticulturist and I’m the stylist. Which leads me to how I almost infected my precious toddler with a parasite or flu-like illness.

I’ve been needing a monstera. A big, juicy one for our living room. So, we went to the plant nursery up the street on a Saturday and I recorded cute vids of my daughter splashing in the display foundations while my husband went in search of the juiciest monstera he could find.

After my child had splashed around for damn near an hour, a store rep came up to gently whisper, “You might not want her playing in the fountains. The raccoons get in them at night. There’s a hose over there if you want to rinse her off.”

…Pardon moi?

Raccoon rivers in these here fountains, you say?

Rinse her off with a HOSE?

Lady, direct me to the nearest bathroom and your ANTIBIOTIC SOAP, please!

Ugh. I’m such a sketchy mom.

But the monstera looks LOVELY in our living room. Really brings the space to life.