![Tour the home of Handmade Charlotte contributor and Martha Stewart veteran Jodi Levine!](https://www.handmadecharlotte.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/1-jodi-levine-tour2.jpg)
My name is Jodi Levine, and I am a crafter-author. I am so excited to be contributing to Handmade Charlotte, one of my favorite online publications! I will be sharing a peek inside my family’s home in Brooklyn, New York. We love living with art and hang as much as we can fit all over the walls. The apartment has a quirky layout with a lot of molding on the walls and an unused painted-closed door in the living room. We kind of ignored all that and hung art everywhere!
![Tour the home of Handmade Charlotte contributor and Martha Stewart veteran Jodi Levine!](https://www.handmadecharlotte.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/5-jodi-levine-tour2.jpg)
Our favorite is the work of our two sons. We display their drawings, notes, photos, sculptures and crafts wherever we can. I especially love the notes. When my 11-year-old son was little, he liked to leave us notes and lists telling us how he’d like his day to unfold. “Drink, Movie, Draw, Park, Snack, Game”… not a bad plan! His “I want to go to Target to buy a movie” note is a mix of handwritten and office-supply sticker letters.
![Tour the home of Handmade Charlotte contributor and Martha Stewart veteran Jodi Levine!](https://www.handmadecharlotte.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/4-jodi-levine-tour2.jpg)
We have a few items that are special to us on the mantle in our boy’s room. My mom made the embroidered alphabet sampler for me when I was little. The truck is vintage Creative Playthings, given to us by my husband’s sister and brother-in-law. My younger son’s name is Lionel, which inspired a friend to buy us the groovy 1965 “Lionel” toy catalog. We purchased the little monkey squeaker toy in Spain when I was pregnant with our firstborn.
![Tour the home of Handmade Charlotte contributor and Martha Stewart veteran Jodi Levine!](https://www.handmadecharlotte.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/3-jodi-levine-tour2.jpg)
![Tour the home of Handmade Charlotte contributor and Martha Stewart veteran Jodi Levine!](https://www.handmadecharlotte.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/2-jodi-levine-tour2.jpg)
Our boys go through different phases of interest, and one of my favorites was their origami phase. We have amassed baskets and baskets of their folded creations. I can’t part with any of it, so I strung them as a garland, clothespin-ing them to twine, under the mantle and at the entrance to the kitchen. I attached them to a string of lights that hangs around our windows. The white curtains in our living room have become a seasonally rotating gallery with bright folded paper shapes pinned all over them.
![Tour the home of Handmade Charlotte contributor and Martha Stewart veteran Jodi Levine!](https://www.handmadecharlotte.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/6-jodi-levine-tour2.jpg)
Thanks for taking a peek into my home. I’m excited to share some projects with you here soon!
Takeaway tips
- Take your child’s art beyond the refrigerator door! Ditch the store-bought prints and fill the walls of your home with an ever-changing anthology of their work.
- Easy-to-find & inexpensive acrylic box frames make it effortless to swap in your newest favorite kid art.
- If you live in an older space, embrace the funky aspects and unusual trim/molding to frame your child’s art.
- String your living spaces and entryways with handmade garlands featuring your child’s folded and cut paper creations!
- Tell a story with your mantle centerpiece using treasured family artifacts and hand-me-downs.