Jo and I (and our furry children, including Felix below) would like to wish you all a very happy holidays and hope you all get at least a bit of a vacation and have a great time with family and friends. Jo is off to her sister’s home on the beach for a couple days (and off work until the new year) and I am having a relaxing time with family nearby (and I am back to work unfortunately on Tuesday). Since we are blogging fiends, we are not really taking a break from the blog over the holidays. Instead we’ll be featuring some reading lists of new blogs that we’ve come across as well as some of our favourite photos we’ve posted over the past year. So if you get a little break from the chaos of the holidays, stop on by here as we’ll be blogging daily. We very much appreciate everyone’s support over the past year and thank you all for visiting DTI. Be safe and we’ll see ya soon!

Emily emailed Jo and I recently hoping we could find her some inspirational photos for a dilemma she has with her bedroom. Due to the chaos involved with trying to get ready for the holidays, our help will have to be postponed a little bit. In the meantime I thought we could showcase the work of her very talented aunt and uncle, James Mastro and Claudia Skylar of Mastro Skylar Architects. I cannot even fathom how awesome it would be to have architects in the family. I know I would certainly save up some dough, get myself a plot of land and have them design me the house of my dreams. So to start I thought I’d showcase some photos of Emily’s aunt and uncle’s own home, a converted 1905 carriage repair shop. “This is our house: filled with light and space and our favorite stuff. Airy but cozy. Colorful but neutral. Sometimes playful, sometimes elegant. Radical ways of organizing space that make perfect sense. Understand our house and you’ll know everything there is to know about us.”

We received an email the other day from a reader named Leslie that had me completely intrigued. “hi. i love your blog and i am also a design junkie. i live in a stone house from the 1930’s and have designed it with a diverse mix of tribal, mid century modern, antiques, hand made objects, things i’ve collected from my travels. it all pulls together in an integrated rich mix of textures and objects…i do think it is a home you would appreciate and wondered if you wanted to see some sample photo’s of some rooms?” Hells yeah I want to see!!! Mid-century and tribal is Jo’s ultimate mix of styles and I love it as well. Leslie has such a wonderful collection of tribal pieces and ethnic furniture, and some fabulous teak pieces. Not to mention quite a stellar collection of rugs and mid-century chairs (and cute pooch) that had me gasping in delight. I love eclectic and this is for sure an eclectic mix. Thank you for sharing your home with us Leslie!!

Today I’d like to share a reader’s home that stemmed from the following email: “I’m an american living in Singapore. I moved here when I was 22, and I’m 30 now, so that’s a few years. Rather than live the traditional ‘expat lifestyle’ of a condo and 42 inch LCD TV on the wall, I bought over a “per-war colonial house” (also known as a “Black & White House”). It had no floor and no roof when I took it over (abandoned for nearly a decade). I rebuilt it myself (in the hot sun!), and I’d love to share it with you! It may help others share inspiration about what can be done with old bricks 😉
Mark Seeger & Huska (german shepherd)”
When I saw these photos I was shocked. THIS had no floor and roof??!! It’s an incredible home that was obviously a labour of love. Thanks for sharing it with us Mark!

Weekends right before Christmas are always hectic. For me this past weekend was just that, filled with LOTS of baking, wrapping presents, having to go into work on Saturday, cleaning, laundry etc. etc. It’s Sunday night as I am desperately trying to get everything done so I can sit on the couch for 5 freaking minutes. Which is why I wanted to do a simple second post for the day, so I decided to pick out my favourite photos from the first 2 issues of Lonny magazine – one of the coolest new sources for inspirational interiors.