My Shabby Chateau...From Paris, with love...

I love Etsy.  As a matter of fact, you could say I am totally obsessed. I spend hours, just browsing away at the amazing variety of vintage, hand made, re-purposed and otherwise one of a kind pieces.  It's a perfect online shopping experience for someone like me - who prefers to mix in vintage and repurposed pieces into my home decor.  It's not that I don't like store bought home accessories, its just that I love the special touches that a hand made or vintage piece adds.  So with that, I thought I'd start a series that features my favorite Etsy Shops. 


The first one, is a Très Chic Shop called My Shabby Chateau. It's my favorite - not just because the offerings, which as you can see below, are wonderful...it also has to do with the woman behind the creations...Donna.  I first met Donna when I stumbled across her blog and saw a post on how she had repurposed a wooden tray into a fabulous French blue display piece...not only did I love the tray enough to buy it - we began a wonderful blogging friendship and have found we have much in common. 

Isn't this tray lovely?  I think it is amazing.  I especially

love the label...which is why I prefer it empty with

just one little starfish and a piece of coral.

Donna has a love of Paris and all things French, that actually started back in junior high school when she studied Claude Monet and dreamed of visiting Giverny.  She has been fortunate enough to visit there twice and fell in love with the French way of life - from how they linger over meals with friends, to their architecture and how they value history. 


One of her greatest inspirations is the Eiffel Tower and until she was standing beneath it - had no idea how huge it was.  She has climbed it twice and uses this  famous symbol in many of her creations. Another one of Donna's favorite inspirations is toile...which she uses in her own home decor.  She loves the pastoral scenes the fabric portrays and because toile is just two colors, it never appears too busy - even though there is a lot going on. 


Since she was a little girl, Donna has always felt the need to create and she used to play with her Mother's JC Penny catalogs and Better Homes & Gardens Magazines.  She usually works on several projects at one time - she is currently working on a shadow box, a couple Halloween projects and a decoupage piece involving vintage music sheets.  (OOh-La-Laa...sounds magnifique).  Her favorite projects involve re-purposing and upcycling...and she loves transforming "junk" or items someone is throwing away into something useful and beautiful. 


Donna loves to travel and Paris of course, is at the top of her list.   Hawaii is also an all time favorite, as well as The Great Lakes of Michigan - as Southern Michigan is her home.  She hopes one day to travel to Lake Como, Italy,  Bora Bora and Banff amongst other places.  


She has made many wonderful friends since she has been blogging and while she has so many favorite blogs that are too numerous to mention..she has a special affinity for Funky Junk Interiors - where Donna is so talented with re-purposing, The Graphics Fairy - where Karen shares her amazing graphics, many of which she has used in her creations (including the label on the tray I purchased), Sissie's Shabby Cottage - where Sissie, who has such a fabulous home, was one of her earliest followers, Lakehouse - where Debbie, as a fellow Michigander has a fabulous home decorated in the shabby chic/cottage look that she loves and Faded Charm Cottage - where Kathleen shares her love of white and hosts a terrific linky party called White Wednesday that she tries to join in regularly.

Some of my current favorites in My Shabby Chateau's Etsy Shop

Oversized decorative wooden spoon - this is so unusual.
I love the post on how Donna re-purposed this.

Love the robins egg blue aqua shadow box
displaying the Eiffel Tower.  Read here about
how Donna made this.

Another one of Donna's re-purposed creations - 
blue and white toile vintage frames

Beautiful framed vintage linen

Okay - I deliberated on whether to show this....as I think 
this is the next My Shabby Chateau piece I'm adding.  
Don't want anyone to get to it before me...so no link here.  :)
Check out the toile in the background.  

And last...but not least, the Pièce de résistance...

A gorgeous decoupage wooden cabinet....
isn't this fabulous?

Here are a couple of the pieces that I have added to my home from My Shabby Chateau:

This is such a special piece...I loved learning how Donna made this...
especially how she used the buttons she had purchased
in Hawaii.  My husband really likes this too. 

I keep it on the shelf in my kitchen so 
I can admire it every day.

The turquoise final came from Donna's shop

This is why I love Etsy. I love adding pieces into my home 
that are hand made.  I hope you enjoyed getting to know 

the person behind these fabulous creations....