A few months back, Emma, Rachel and I had a chance to visit Caitlin’s beautiful home in Oaxaca, Mexico. Upon entering her home, we were squealing over her rug collection, her incredible outdoor space and the overall effortless, yet honed, aesthetic she had created. We begged her to share her home here on A Beautiful Mess, and she agreed! Please welcome Caitlin Garcia-Ahern, creator of Thread Caravan, to ABM today! 
“I began renting this home in Oaxaca, Mexico in January 2019. Living abroad, I don’t own much furniture, so when looking for a home to rent, it was important for me to find a place that used beautiful materials to construct the house. I wanted the textiles and pieces I do have to really shine. I was searching for a place with a lot of light, and at least a small outdoor area, with two bedrooms—one for me and one to visitors.
I love and spend most of my time in the main common room downstairs. It’s living room, dining room and kitchen all in one—with an entire wall of windows and glass doors that open up into the garden space. I especially love having an open kitchen. I don’t particularly love cooking, but I feel more inspired to prepare things when the kitchen is such an integral part of the common space.
Almost everything in my home is handmade by craftspeople—the furniture, rugs, textiles, ceramics. I source most pieces from our artisan partners or markets during the art workshops I host with my company, Thread Caravan.
One of my favorite pieces is the chair by Indentidad Local (the one under the stairs). It’s woven by hand using lake grasses in Estado de Mexico. The design is traditional, but not common anymore, and several companies are working to preserve production with artisans.
I also really love the painting hanging in the kitchen area. It’s by Erick Garcia Gomez, a Mexican painter from Chiapas who I met here in Oaxaca, and depicts a woman riding a bull with boots and a serpent as a tail.
During a recent Thread Caravan workshop in Guatemala, I bought a hand-carved wooden bench with tiger faces on either side. It’s a beautiful work of art. I especially love art which is beautiful, but also has a function—chairs, benches, rugs, baskets, etc.
I’ve only been in the home since January, but I’m settling in more and more each day. I’d say the biggest change since my arrival has been the garden. It started out with just one tree that had no leaves when I moved in. The stone pebbles on the ground and white walls seemed so stark and cold, so I’ve cared for the tree and it’s grown its leaves back, and I’ve added a ton of plants to make the space more warm—banana, papaya, blackberry, lantana, bougainvillea, honeysuckle, jasmine, cacti, agave, herbs, cotton, lime, and more.
Another huge change has been my dogs. I moved here with just my one dog, Bowie, but since being here, I’ve started a small street dog rescue project, Caravana Canina. Right now, I have my dog Bowie as well as two fosters, Mami and Tuna. Having more animals really changes the energy of the space, as well as our daily routines.
I fell in love with this home for the natural light, the concrete floors that look beautiful with my rugs on them, and the open floor plan. It’s also outside of the city center, so I get to wake up to the sound of birds chirping in the big tree outside my window.”
Such a magical home, isn’t it? For more inspiration, be sure to follow Caitlin’s company, Thread Caravan on Instagram. xo.
I’m so so excited to begin sharing my freshly completed Nashville bnb space with you today! I decided to start with the living spaces—the kitchen and dining room and the living room! My bnb is now available to rent 
Dining room time! For this little nook, I used 
Next up, a little record player set up! I always love it when my bnb has a record player or a way to play music in the living spaces!
I want our space to feel clean, functional and spacious. So I am careful not to overdecorate it. I’ve asked all my close friends what they love and value in a bnb and most people prefer a minimally decorated space. Not too much clutter! My sister said the funniest thing: She said the only thing a bnb really needs is Internet and a wine opener … she’s not wrong.
This weekend, my family and I are staying at the bnb to double check everything and make sure it’s super functional. I know a lot of guests don’t cook full meals, but I want people to be able to when they choose! There’s nothing worse than staying in a bnb where they don’t even have basic stuff like a way to make coffee or salt and pepper. I hate it when you can tell the host has never stayed there, so that’s something we do now for quality assurance. 🙂
The last 10 percent of the decor is always the most difficult for me. I find it easy to pick big furniture and choose tile, but that last little bit—making it cozy takes me longer. I finally feel like this space is ready to share!
The backdoors are so great for natural light. We have a good-sized yard, a porch and some yard games back there.
At the top of the stairs is this living room and there are two bedrooms to either side of it, each with their own bathroom. There’s also a laundry closet on this floor.
About a year ago, my good friend Shai asked me if I would make her wedding cake. Many years ago, I used to do some cupcake catering on the side, so I’ve made cupcakes for a few weddings. But I’ve never made a tiered cake before. And I was terrified to do so as I really don’t consider myself much of a cake decorator. I love to bake and feel pretty good about that overall, but decorating a tiered cake for a good friend’s wedding sounded like a lot of pressure. But I was thrilled that she asked me to be a part of her big day and I was excited for the challenge. I just needed to figure out how to make a wedding cake. I mean, how hard could it be?
I decided to recruit my talented friend, Amber McGuire, to help me with the decorating and set up of the cake since she previously had worked for a bakery. I learned a lot from Amber, and the cake turned out so good! Shai’s only request was for 
You’ll want to bake the wedding cake layers 1-2 weeks before (or even more) and freeze them. This is the secret to really good wedding cake!
Once the cakes are baked, allow them to completely cool. Then wrap tightly in plastic wrap before freezing. Be careful when freezing them to stack or layer so that they don’t freeze with dents or bumps from other things that may be in your freezer. Also, you can tell this from the photo, but just to be super clear, you won’t level off the cakes until you frost them. So freeze them without leveling the layers.
The night before the wedding, we leveled the frozen cake layers, placed them on cake boards, and frosted each tier. These were wrapped and refrigerated and then transported the day of the wedding. The venue had a refrigerator we could use to store the tiers in as we did the final assembly just before the reception. We wanted to assemble the cake at the last possible moment, hoping this would prevent any melting from the Midwest weather. The cake did get a little sweaty, but other than that, it held up and tasted great, so I think this was the best call for our situation.
For a tiered wedding cake, you’ll also want to insert wooden dowel rods into the bottom tiers (all tiers except the top). This just makes the cake stronger and more stable. You can buy wooden dowels in the cake decorating section of any craft store or online. Just cut the dowels the size of the tier before carefully inserting (with clean hands—do everything while making a wedding cake with clean hands, of course).
Once you are ready to assemble, stack the tiers carefully. To cover the line between the tiers, pipe a little more frosting on the seam and gently level out with an offset spatula.
Once fully assembled, you can decorate however you like. Since Shai had requested the peanut butter frosting, I knew the cake was going to be a light brown. Her wedding colors were gray and blush pink, so I wanted to represent those colors in any other decor I could. We added a pink chocolate drip to the top layer for some added color (done by simply melting pink candy melts and using a spoon to drip over the edge). I also purchased some pink felt flowers from 
It was really fun, although a little bit nerve-wracking, to get to be a part of making this wedding cake. But it was an absolute JOY to see my friends get married and be a small part of their day—I am so grateful. Thanks for letting me share! And I’d love to hear if any of you have made a tiered wedding cake for your or a friend’s big day. Do you have more tips? Tells us all the secrets! xo. Emma
Hello friends! As you know, we have just welcomed our second daughter, Marigold June, into our family. I’m currently on maternity leave (don’t worry, this post is pre-scheduled) and I wanted to share my list of things we’re hoping to do as a family while we’re on our leave. Obviously, our number one concern is bonding with Marigold, but I learned on my first maternity leave that it works best for us to have a lot of fun activities we can do together.
Are you the kind of person who, every once in a while, might be known to eat a spoonful fo peanut butter directly off the spoon? Yeah, me too. If you’re in this group, you are probably going to love this super easy peanut butter frosting recipe. It’s HIGHLY addictive. Yes, the all caps was necessary.
I first made a version of this when I made Deb’s 
Since then, I have slightly changed/tweaked this recipe. It’s just a little more simple now—mainly from using a little more peanut butter and a little less cream cheese. But I still highly recommend Deb’s original recipe as the entire combo she lays out is fire.
The recipe I’m sharing below will make enough frosting for standard double layer cake. It might look like more in some of the photos above because as I was prepping for the wedding cake I ended up needing to triple this recipe. Having that amount of creamy, delicious peanut butter frosting sitting in your refrigerator is a very, very dangerous situation to find yourself in. 🙂 Enjoy! xo. Emma