Kindergarten Crafts, All Grown Up

I can't stop thinking about Trohv's holiday window.

A couple years ago, I found myself semi-obsessed with the big paper pom flowers made by Etsy-ist Pom Love. I bought tons of them - they made perfect decorations for baby showers and wedding showers and also my basement.

This year, everywhere I look, I see a different sort of paper decoration: the kind that's created from something I probably  have laying around my house.

Like the paper plate snow in the window at Trohv in Hampden. They're amazing.

Or these coffee filter garlands from Food 52. So fluffy and pretty.

Or this unbelievable flower/snowflake thing made from cut up toilet paper rolls, of all things.

Paper plates, coffee filters, toilet paper rolls - these are the tools of preschool teachers, right? But in the right hands, they're so sophisticated.

That fits, really, with overall trends toward simplification and "handmade" everything and the homespun aesthetic. But none of these examples are overly twee or hipstery. They're just interesting and look cool and they're kind of sweet.

They'd all make solid additions to a New Year's brunch table, too.