While some people may be cringing with the cold, or with the ever-nearing holiday season, I am getting super-stoked for the holiday season!  I, like many of you, love this time of year because I get excited to make my  home a fun welcoming place and I love preparing both food and my home for holiday gatherings.

In my profession, I work with home goods: housewares, textiles, and everything in-between!  The home business booms around this time of year for the very reason that I like to buy fun home goods this time of year: people love to prepare for get-togethers with family and friends.

Take a look at some of my favorite websites for home items of great design and function.  Maybe you’ll find that perfect thing you’ve been looking to serve your homemade cheeseballs in; and, keep these sites in mind for holiday gifts as well!

1.  Bodum

Bodum is no big secret. Bodum has expanded to sell all over the place, including mid-to-high-end department stores, but I listed them first because I always enjoy their products’ design and functionality. Also, when I think of home entertaining, I immediately think of making coffee.  Check out the Brazil Set: a colorful 8-cup french press with four matching cups.  Great for entertaining, OR as a holiday gift!

2.  Greener Grass Design

Greener Grass Design’s mission statement is plain and simple: they want to provide interesting goods.  Boom.  GGD carries everything from bold barware, to playful pet-homes, to whimsical dishes, to charming trash bags.  And come on fellow squirrel-lovers, what home doesn’t need an adorable squirrel-shaped nut bowl?!

3.  The Curiosity Shoppe

The Shoppe always has some cutesy goods perfect for gift-giving, like a cheese board in the shape of France (ooh la la!), or these well-dressed napkins for your not-so-well-dressed family to jam in the necks of their T-shirts and look fancy.

4.  Reiko Kaneko

Let’s switch it up for a second and move beyond the entertaining items, and go straight to a purely holiday gifty item – because it’s just that damn special.  Based in the UK, Reiko Kaneko hand-crafts contemporary designs in bone china.  Their items are interesting and fun, like these cat and dog bone china Christmas tree ornaments. Hand-crafted people!

5.  Perch!

Perch is a small company (um, three people and a cat?) based in Brooklyn that produces home items that can perform double duty! A freeform basket can also be hung as a bird-feeder, a mason jar can be used as a vase or pitcher…you get the idea.  Whatever you use them for, their designs and products are beautiful, modern yet organic, and environmentally friendly.  Perfect for entertaining, or gift-giving!

Main Article Image features Perch! Rosette Vase

For those of you youngsters lucky enough to have 20-20 vision, I envy the beautiful, fashionable sunglasses you can wear whenever you want. The one warning I’ll give you is that sometime in your mid-40s, you will most probably need glasses for reading—the loss of close-up vision eventually happens to all of us. When that day comes, there are many stores, like Anthropologie, that sell readers with cool frames.

For those of us who need some kind of corrective lenses in order to see where we’re going all the time, we constantly have choices to make. Do we wear what’s most comfortable, what looks the best, what we think will make the best impression? The answer, of course, is that it depends.

If, like me, you spend a lot of time working on a computer, glasses may work best for you most of the time. Turns out we blink our eyes less often when we look at the screen, which can cause them to get dry and bloodshot: uncomfortable and not a good look for anyone.

These days there are so many frame options that if you take some time you can find a pair—or more if you want to match them with your outfits—that look good. You might want to have someone with you when you try frames on so you don’t get railroaded into thinking the only ones that look good on you are the most expensive pair in the store. It’s good to have a pair of prescription sunglasses too if you can afford them.

Even after you’ve found glasses that look great, there are times when contacts may be a better choice. I like them for exercising, especially outdoors. If you ever tried skiing down a mountain on a snowy day with fogged up goggles that fit over your fogged up glasses or gone running and had to keep pushing your glasses up on your nose, you’ll know exactly what I mean—it just plain doesn’t work.

I also like wearing my contacts when I go to an event that requires being dressed up—somehow being dressed up and made up doesn’t go with glasses. Although for us mere mortals it makes sense to wear them if the alternative is not being able to see. I’m afraid the scene in the great old movie “How to Marry a Millionaire” where Marilyn Monroe gets on the wrong plane because she doesn’t want to wear her glasses, ends up sitting next to a nice man who wears glasses, insists she put hers on and falls in love with her when she does, is just what it sounds like—fiction.

Of course you could also get Lasik eye surgery. It’s not covered by most health insurance, so you’ll need to shell out a few thousand dollars, but everyone I know who’s had it is very happy.

And if you want to kill a little time and see how some glasses might look on you from the comfort of your home, try Glasses Direct’s Virtual Mirror:

Yay! You’re adopting a cat! Your new feline friend will no doubt bring you much joy and laughter, benefit your health, and may even keep our feet warm on cold nights. But what do you need to give her to make her transition to your home a smooth one and ensure she’s happy and well taken care of? Reaching into my five-plus years of professional experience with animals and humans who devote their lives to the care of animals, as well as my lifetime of feline companionship, I’ve come up with the following comprehensive shopping list for you, the new cat-person, to take to your local store or hit the interwebs with to ensure Fluffy’s all taken care of from the get-go. Read on to see what you’ll need and why:

For under $10, the cost of a can of spray paint, you can make an otherwise boring tray (or most anything, really) look more expensive and/or fit with your décor.

• If the tray has a finish on it, sand it down lightly.
• Clean the tray by dusting it and wiping it down with a damp cloth. Allow it to dry completely.
• Go outside (no spray painting indoors, okay?) and lay down some rags underneath your project.
• Spray the tray with long, even strokes for as many coats as it takes to cover the whole thing, following the directions on the can.
• Allow to dry overnight if possible.
• Enjoy looking at your masterpiece!

I’ve also used spray paint (this time, gold) to make over an ugly wooden frame:

Before you buy something new, look at what you have and ask yourself: could this be better with a coat of new paint? For less time than the trip to the store and certainly less money than the cost of a new frame, tray, or what-have-you.

Mulled wine or glühwein or vin chaud: Whatever you like to call it, it’s delicious. I prefer glühwein because that’s the name they use in Berlin, where I first experienced this treat. It was late November, my BFF and I were there to visit my brother for the Thanksgiving holidays. It was FREEZING! Luckily for us, there were Winter Markts all over the place, loaded with stalls peddling hot cheese sammys, crepes, xmas gifts and glühwein. The glühwein stalls were packed with people huddled together, sipping their steamy glühweins, feeling the blood come back to their extremities. Of all the things I did in those ten days in Berlin, including visiting a fetish club (woah) and shakin’ it till 8 am to electropop, those moments huddled up with my gal pal sipping the ole’ glühwein willing my blocks of ice to turn back into toes, are by far my favorite. Whenever I warm this stuff up, I’m transported back. Luckily, it’s a snap to make and cheap too:

Glühwein
Makes about 4 glasses

1 bottle of cheapo red wine
1 med-large orange
4 cloves
4 cardamom pods
4 allspice pods
1 cinnamon stick
4 tbsps sugar
rum or amaretto (optional)

• Grab a pot
• Add the sugar and spices (if you want you can wrap the spices in a cheese cloth or a tea diffuser for easy removal)
• Zest the whole orange and add the zest to the pot (make sure to get the orange part but not the pith; ’tis bitter)
• Squeeze the juice from the orange and add that to the pot too
• Dump in the bottle of wine
• Simmer on low (no boiling) for at least 15 minutes (f you’re doing this for a party just multiply by whatever and keep the whole shebang on low on your teeniest burner all night)

• Ladle into whatever you’ve got handy: Coffee mugs, thick glassed old-fashioned glasses, wine glasses. Whatever works.
• The Germans offer this up with an optional shot of amaretto or rum. I like the rum, it cuts the sweetness a little but it’s not necessary. Unless you want to be drunk.
• You can garnish with an orange slice or peel if you wanna get schmancy.
• Now, put your coat and scarf on and go sip your hot beverage out in the cold. It’s an amazing toasty, cold-weather feeling. mmmmmm

Auf Wiedersehen!

I know that Summer is the popular guy in class but Fall has always been my personal favorite. Yeah, Summer has a good tan and doesn’t make you go to school, but Fall smells good and means crisp air, crunchy leaves on the sidewalk, new outfits, Trapper Keepers, and sneakers are back! Plus, as far as seasonal holidays go, you guys can keep 4th of July; Halloween is obviously the coolest!

As it’s still early in the season, here is a project that will keep your pumpkin around for the next couple weeks instead of slowly caving in on itself until Halloween rolls around. Plus, it’s mess free and you can even use the pumpkin itself for bread, pie or roasted seeds at the end of the month!

TOOLS OF THE TRADE: Pumpkin, photo print out or drawing (to scale), scissors, Sharpies, and dry erase pen.

1. For the image you plan to use you can blow up a photo or choose from lots of awesome silhouettes out there in the cyberworld. There are plenty of templates out there but I choose to keep it personal and made mine using a picture of my dog Gigi. Obviously.

2. Start by cutting out your silhouette as carefully and detailed as possible.

3. Next, tape the silhouette down to hold it in place.

4. Using your dry erase marker (which wipes off with warm water when you are done. So mistakes are no problem!), trace your silhouette. Remove the tape carefully as you go around.

*Tip* if you prefer to carve out your silhouette and avoid any pen marks, you can trace it by poking tiny holes with the end of a paper clip or safety pin. This way you have a very faint tracing to work off of.

5. Once you are done tracing, remove the silhouette, make any changes with your dry erase and then carefully trace over your lines with a sharpie. If you would like to add a border, draw out an oval on scratch paper (folded in half a la elementary school helps for symmetry) and trace around your silhouette with the dry erase pen. Then trace out the oval in Sharpie.

6. Next, fill in the body of the shape. I recommend a jumbo sharpie to cover more ground! You may need to do two coats to cover the orange.

7. Once the Sharpie is dry, you can simply dampen a paper towel and the dry erase will come off easily.

Voila! Step back and admire!

For more cute no-carve ideas, here is a series I recently made for Real Simple Magazine.

Here is a pretty amazing carving pumpkin idea – leave it to Martha’s team of crafters!

Oh and before you go! Here are a couple recipes to make the most of your pumpkin, inside and out!

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*Classic Roasted Pumpkin Seeds*

1 1/2 c raw whole pumpkin seeds

2 tsp soy margarine

1 pinch salt

- Preheat the oven to 300°.

- Toss the seeds in the margarine and salt mix.

- Spread the seeds on a sheet in a thin layer

- Bake 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

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* Sugar and Spice Roasted Pumpkin Seeds*

1 cup pumpkin seeds

1 Tbs melted soy margarine or vegetable oil

1 Tbs granulated sugar

1/2 to 1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/8 tsp allspice

[Same baking directions as above.]

For more flavor options try: garlic salt or powder, black pepper, cayenne, chili powder or Italian seasoning. Recipe found here.

Happy Halloween, girls!

The season’s are changing, and while spring is time for cleaning, fall is the perfect time for fixer-uppers! Now is a great time to attend to accessory malfunctions and wardrobe switcheroo’s. Let’s face it, on top of all the other chores you have to do in your life, cleaning your jewelry is probably a task that never even makes it on the to-do list. So I plan to make it super easy for you!

All you need are four things to tend to your jewelry needs now and all year long:

1.  A Soft or Children’s Toothbrush

This is useful for gently brushing your jewelry free of debris.  Many pre-packaged jewelry cleaners can have abrasive materials and/or chemicals that are not recommended for soft fine gemstones.  A soft toothbrush,  however, won’t harm gems or metals, and helps you scrub in the tiny little areas under gems and in detailed recessions.

2. Sudsy Ammonia OR Mild Dish Soap

Most grocery stores carry these cleaning agents, which can clean your jewelry safely without leaving a coating or film! Dilute the Sudsy Ammonia by adding it to a bowl of lukewarm water (equal parts Sudsy Ammonia and water).**  You can let your jewerly soak in a cup of it and give it a gentle little scrup with the toothbrush. This solution is what is often used in professional ultra-sonic cleaners in jewelry shops, and has been used on a wide variety of gemstones without harming them (avoid cleaning opals this way). If you can’t find Sudsy Ammonia or don’t want to deal with Ammonia altogether, a single drop of mild dish soap in lukewarm water will work as well.

3.  Silver Rouge Polishing Cloth

These cloths do wonders for all types of jewely, but especially sterling silver jewelry that has become oxidized!
As you may know, silver oxidizes—or tarnishes—with exposure to the air.  The outermost molecules on a piece of silver interact with the oxygen in the air, and turn black. Rouge cloths, such as the fabulous Fabulustre, are treated with jeweler’s rouge. Simply rub the jewelry item and you’ll see the black tarnished layer come right off onto the cloth, leaving your silver jewelry bright and shiny!*

4.  Silver Protector Strips

Prevent frequent re-oxidation on your silver jewelry by placing one of these strips in your jewelry box, or in a small bag or box you keep the jewelry in.  The strip will interfere with the chemical interaction of the oxygen and your silver item, so you have to clean your jewelry even less frequently!

Please Note:
**Store Ammonia safely.  Be careful not to splash Ammonia near eyes, and NEVER mix it with Bleach!
*It is difficult to get into recessed areas with the cloth, so recessions will remain blackened – a look many people prefer. If you wish an item to be completely free of oxidation, the safest treatment is to have a professional jeweler polish it on a polishing machine where tiny bristles can reach into the recessions as well.

Photo by simone-walsh on Flickr

Just like a pair of earrings can solidify your look, small home accessories can act as further (and affordable) hints of the interior design look you’re going for. If they serve a purpose other than decoration, all the better! Coasters are a great, cheap way to express your home style while performing double-duty and protecting your tables from rings (my cocktail table is glass, not wood, but I obsessively use coasters anyway so I’m not wiping it down twice a day).

So if you’re going for a Hollywood regency look, try some agate coasters, mid-century modern: marble or coasters made from vintage records, craftsman: Frank Lloyd Wright patterns, vintage: glass and silver, and so on—no matter what you’re taste, there are coasters to match. And if you entertain frequently and want to help everyone keep track of their glasses, slate coasters paired with some chalk are stylish and fun.

Coaster Round-Up by icelandicody on Polyvore.com

My apartment is palatial by New York City standards, so when The Beau suggested getting a storage space for some items we couldn’t figure out what to do with, I put my foot down. No way should two adults with as much space as us spend their money on a storage space! Instead, I decided it was time to empty out all of our storage areas around the house and reorganize, repack, and re-put away. Between our two trunks in the living room, dresser in the dining room, console in the bedroom, three storage closets with built-in shelving, and second bedroom-turned walk-in closet, we had a lot of stuff to go through, but also a lot of storage space to work with. Certain items, like our holiday decorations or CD collection were in the same place we put them when we moved in six years ago, despite the fact that over the years we haven’t needed to get to them that often and more pressing items had been stashed on higher shelves. This was our time to rectify the situation, as well as go through everything and decide what stayed and what went. It was a three-weekend project, but absolutely worth it—our home feels larger and we both feel less cluttered both physically and mentally.

So what are you waiting for? It’s fall. You’re going to be inside for the next eight months. Make the most of your space with the following tips from an organization-obsessive:

Get Inspired By Other People Who Are Worse Off Than You:
Watch a few episodes of Clean House or Clean Sweep or even Hoarders as prep. There’s nothing like seeing grown adults crying over the idea of parting with a painting of a kitten on a branch to toughen you up for making the hard decisions.

Make Rules:
While it’s easy to make the argument that something like, say, a racquetball racket, isn’t really taking up that much space and it would suck to have to buy another one if you do ever decide to pick up the game again, if you haven’t touched it in 15 years, it’s gotta go. That tee you tie-dyed in Junior High, however…

Get Inspired By Amazing Storage Solutions:
There’s nothing like seeing storage done beautifully to inspire me. Do a search for “storage” or “closets” on Apartment Therapy, Habitually Chic, Design Sponge, or Unclutterer. Seeing how lovely your closets/bathrooms/shelving/etc. can look with a little work will help get you going and might give you some new ideas.

Prioritize Your Belongings:
When’s the last time you needed to access your childhood photo album? High school yearbook? Swimming goggles? Reorganize your storage spaces so that the things you use most often are the most easily accessible. Sounds like a no-brainer, I know, but when you’ve been in one place for several years, your storage tends to stay put and new stuff gets stored in the farther reaches, even if you need it more often.

Give It Away:
Know your game-plan for disposal before you start and mark out piles, bins or bags in the categories that make most sense to you: give to other people, trash, donate, sell, recycle… Just be sure these categories don’t simply end up taking up more space in your home! If you’re going to give items to others, make sure to make a point of getting these items to their new owners within a week or two. If you’re going to donate, check the hours of your local drop-off facility and get it in your calendar. There’s nothing worse than doing all the hard work and then dumping crap back in your closet for when you’re ready to get it out and then a week goes by, then another one, and then before you know it, you’re stepping over it every day and creating an even bigger mess. Get it out of there!

Creative Solutions:
In the future, when looking for furniture or accessories for your home,  think about how it might help with storage. A minimalist clear acrylic coffee table might look really cool, but if you have nowhere to stash your remotes, it might not be the best bet for you. Vintage trunks, suitcases, and even airline crates can add a lot of personality to a space and double as storage.

Keep It Together:
When storing items, keep things that are similar together: magazines together, sports equipment together,  games together, art supplies together, and so on. Not only will it make your storage areas look nicer, it will also help you find things when the time comes.

Photo by Miskan on Flickr