Traveling abroad has taught me many things over the years.

• People are the same the world over. We just live differently. We all want to be loved, live a long joyful life and see our children grow & have children of their own.
• You can shop better with fewer choices. A grocer offering local, in season foods is a less stressful experience once you get over the shock of not being able to buy strawberries year round. (Admit it, out of season strawberries don’t taste like much anyway.)

And one of the most important, to me anyway;

• You can live very large in a much smaller space and with less things.

I have been editing out unnecessary things and clutter after every trip. I still have a long way to go as the selling off in preparation for moving into NYC is proving and I look forward to when we begin living in our new space.

I have surfed and floated through the Apartment Therapy site to get ideas of how other people take tiny city living spaces and make them into wonderfully warm homes.

People have done amazingly creative things with bits most of us would not only overlook, but toss out without a thought.

This tea light holder for instance.

Tealight Upcycle via Taylor Made

How cute is that? And from just taking a second look at those cheap, plastic eggs we all have around at some point when you have children.

So I took a look around my house and came up with this!

My new side, tray table!

• The lag/base is from a laundry basket that the canvas bag wore out that I have yet made time to sew a new one.
• The box is from a local business, found on Craig’s List. ($1 each!) The legs are just using the confines of the box.
• Topped with a pine tray I have had for nearly 20 years.

I love it! What do you think?

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