More Mailboxes

If you've been reading this blog for awhile, you know that I really like shopping (and window shopping) for cool outdoor and garden decor and accessories, like planters, garden statues, mail boxes, benches, etc. My taste is pretty eclectic so I'm always looking for new stuff that I like.

Today's a mailbox day so I'm looking at a site that sells all kinds of residential mailboxes as well as multi-unit mailboxes, drop boxes, address plaques, and other decor. I really like this shadowbox style mailbox:



I love the contrast of the white and a bright color (they have several different colors to choose from), and I like that it's different from a "traditional" looking mailbox, but also a decent size and totally functional.

Aside from mailboxes, they also have some other great decorative items for the house and garden. This doorbell is really cool:



And I absolutely love this Times & Seasons outdoor thermometer:



What do you think? What's your favorite decorative piece in your garden?

Getting Vaporized

I was talking to a friend of mine who is really into alternative health and aromatherapy and things like that, and she just introduced me to vaporizers. A vaporizer is a smoking alternative that allows you to inhale various herbs and other materials without actually burning them with a flame. Since there's no flame involved, the process is cleaner and can last longer and, probably most importantly, significantly reduces any toxins or carcinogens that may be present.

So I've been looking at this really interesting website that sells lots of different kinds of vaporizers and has a ton of helpful information. I've been reading up and learning about the different types of vaporizers that are available and the benefits of each kind. One of the most impressive looking ones is called the Volcano Vaporizer (even the name is cool, it sounds like something a superhero would use). It's a high quality German product that uses a method called a balloon valve to safely create scented and flavored vapor.

Yeah, I know, if you're unfamiliar with this it kinda sounds like science fiction, but it's all legit and I find it really interesting. I'll definitely be looking into vaporizers more and maybe investing in a Volcano of my own.

Patio Planning

The weather is supposed to be really nice here this weekend, so I'm looking forward to spending a lot of time in my backyard and working on my garden. One of the things that I want to do this year is get some new yard furniture and kinda rearrange the layout of my yard a little.

So I've been looking online and shopping around for some new patio furniture and other decorations for my yard...or site furnishings, as they'd be called if my yard was a park, and I like to think that my yard is totally that important. I need a new table for my yard, so I've been looking at picnic tables. I really like this Octagon Table because it's cute and it offers a lot of seating without taking up a huge amount of space.


I also like the look of Park Benches in a garden, both for seating and also to put planters on.


And for even more seating, I'm thinking Adirondack chairs - benches and picnic tables are great, but I also need a place to lounge with some lemonade and a book. I found these really cool Adirondack chairs that are made from recycled plastic, so they're both durable and eco-friendly. (And no splinters!) I'm loving this sunny yellow color:


What are your plans for your yard or garden this summer?

Major Marble

A friend of mine went to Florida to spend Easter with her boyfriend's family, and she was telling me about the amazing house that his parents have. Beautiful pool, big chandeliers, and marble floors that she said she was paranoid about spilling something on all weekend. And when she complimented the floors and joked about her fears, she learned more about stone floor restoration than she bargained for.

I say it's all just useful info for when she has a huge house of her own to take care of. (You've got to think positively, right?) For example, did you know that diamonds are sometimes involved somehow in the marble polishing process? And that you can sometimes have marble surfaces color enhanced? And that you should never use vinegar or other acidic cleaners on marble because it can "poison" the stone? See, the more you know.

Of course, this set us off on a tangent of fantasy house decorating. (Kinda like those people who play The Sims just so they can build and design houses.) I look forward to the day that I need to hire a marble polishing team of my very own.

Back to the Garden

Spring is finally here! We've definitely had our share of April showers where I live, but we're also starting to have some of those beautiful sunny spring days. One of the things that I look forward to when the weather warms up is working in the garden. I haven't done too much yet because the weather hasn't fully started cooperating, but I've started planning and thinking about what flowers, plants, veggies, and herbs I want to plant this year.

I also have to admit that I have a weakness for garden accessories, so I'm always on the lookout for new planters, garden statues, wind chimes, and things like that. One thing that I definitely want to add to my yard this year is a garden trellis. I've always liked the way that they look, especially when they're covered with climbing vines.

So I found a site that sells nothing but trellises (I love the internet) and I've been checking out my options. I love this combination trellis and wind chime:



This vinyl trellis is really pretty, and the white really helps the colors of the climbing flowers to stand out.



And this wrought iron trellis is really beautiful. This style just might be my favorite.



Happy spring and happy gardening!

Carpet Cleaning Crisis

I just got off the phone with a friend of mine. She has two little kids and one big dog, so I'm always hearing stories about their wacky (and messy) hijinks. Today's story involved a momentarily distracted mom, a full glass of grape juice, and a beige carpet. Oops.

Now, this isn't exactly the first time that my friend's carpets have gotten stained. But a giant purple splotch in the middle of the living room can definitely be filed under 'last straw'. So, suddenly finding the best carpet cleaning in Austin went way up the priority list. This took some doing because she moved last year - in her old neighborhood she was practically on a first name basis with everyone who worked at the local carpet cleaning place, but she hasn't really hit the Austin carpet cleaning scene yet.

Anyway, she told me that she found a really good company to come and clean all of her carpets and get some carpet protector put on. (If they were up to the challenge of her family, they must be really good.) They even offer some "green" cleaning services, which my friend really liked because not only is it better for the environment, but she feels better using fewer potentially toxic chemicals in her home since she does have young kids. They even gave her some professional carpet cleaning tips so that she can handle the next grape juice crisis herself. Can't beat that.

Baby-Proofing Madness

I recently visited a friend of mine who has a new baby. He's her first child, so even though he's not really very mobile yet, the baby-proofing was in full effect at her house, from Baby Gates to stove and window guards. Everything is so thoroughly baby-proofed that getting around is kind of like going through an obstacle course.

I made the mistake of making a joke about all of the guards and gates and ended up getting a full lesson on baby-proofing and kid safety. (In all seriousness though, I don't blame her for being cautious, and I think that's far better than not being careful enough.)

She told me that she researched a lot of baby safety items and ended up going with a company called KidSafeInc.com. They make all kinds of child safety products as well as Pet Gates and other related stuff. She evens checks their KidSafe Blog sometimes to make sure she's up on all of the latest products. Can't leave anything unproofed! (They also have info about things like crib recalls, which is really important because it seems like products for babies are recalled every other week these days.)

The bottom line is that her son is absolutely adorable, so I'm okay with her wrapping her whole house in bubble wrap if it keeps him safe and happy.

Cooking with Spice

I love to cook. I'm all about experimenting with recipes and trying out new styles of cooking. I'm also really into spicy food. So my collection of herbs and spices is always growing, because I like to have whatever I need for anything that I might feel like making.

Of course, this means that I need to have a way of keeping it all organized so that I can find the cumin or pumpkin pie spice or whatever the spice of the day is quickly and easily. Enter kitchen spice racks. There are a couple of different types that I like. For some of the stuff that I don't use as often, and the backup jars of stuff that I use all the time, I like the spice racks that can be hidden away in drawers or cabinets.



For the stuff that I use more often, I like a smaller spice rack that can go on the counter. This one has a really cool mad scientist sort of vibe to it, and it's also really easy to see and grab exactly what you're looking for.



And for functional and decorative purposes, I also like a nice wall spice rack. They add a colorful touch to a kitchen, and they're easy to organize. I like to alphabetize my spices, because it makes it easy to find things...and because I'm a foodie dork.



What are your favorite spices to cook with? How do you organize them?

Rain Chains

I was visiting my aunt the other day when that big rain storm came through. Luckily it wasn't too bad where she lives. I love being at her house when it rains because she has rain chains and I think they're so cool. If you're not familiar with rain chains, they're basically decorative chains or metal cups that hang and can take the place of a gutter spout. They look really pretty and when it rains many of them also sound nice too. Kinda like a wind chime sort of thing.


It's not really practical for me to do the rain chain thing where I live right now, but I'm definitely planning on it in the future. I think it's an unexpected nice touch to a garden, and I like that it lets you take something that's usually pretty unattractive like a gutter and turn it into something much more beautiful.


Usually people put some sort of catch basin at the bottom of their rain chain. It looks nice, it protects the ground below from getting too waterlogged, and it allows you to collect the rain water which can be used for a bird bath or to water plants and things like that. This copper rain chain and catch basin is really pretty:


Nice, right? I'm looking forward to the next time it rains.

Going Victorian

I'm still having fun doing some fantasy decorating on the "stately manor" house that I'm sure to own someday very soon. Before I got onto this stately manor kick, I wrote about a cool mailbox that I saw and really liked. The only problem is that that mailbox was very modern and curvy and sleek. But I feel like if we're going in the manor house direction, then I should switch it up and look at some more Victorian mailboxes.

Luckily, when it comes to decorating I have really eccentric tastes, so I can switch gears easily. Of course, this is a blessing and a curse, because I love almost everything, so as a result I want to buy everything and have to be careful that my rooms stay on the eccentric side and don't cross the line into "potential hoarder" or "hot mess".

Anyway, mailboxes. Some of these Victorian wall mailbox options are really pretty.





This indoor letter holder is really intricate and unique. I do think there's something vaguely The Haunting-esque about it, but that's not necessarily a bad thing depending on the look that you're going for.



Then there are the Victorian pedestal mailboxes. Not only do these look really nice, but somehow I feel like it makes your mail seem more important. Maybe that's because the style of these mailboxes comes from a time when people still regularly wrote actual letters to each other. Some of them also have a slightly mysterious feel to me, as if they're going to contain secret spy messages or letters from a famous detective or something like that.

Gardening One Box at a Time

The other day I talked about how I'm experimenting with easy ways to get into gardening, because I'd like to be better at it but I want to start small so that I don't get overwhelmed with a whole garden full of plants that I don't know how to care for. One way to do that is with planters, because you can try out different plants and flowers but do it in a small and manageable space.

I've shopped for some regular planters but I've also been looking at window boxes. I think they make a nice addition to any garden, and they're also great if you don't have a lot of space to work with.


I've always liked the look of window flower boxes, because you can really make some cool visual statements by mixing colors (or going with just one bold color) or switching up different heights and styles of plants.


Another thing a window box can be great for is growing herbs. That's one thing that I do know a little bit about since I love to cook. Planters are really good for certain herbs, like mint, that have a tendency to grow like crazy and overwhelm a garden. But really you can grow just about any herb in a planter and it's really cool to be able to have a lot of different fresh herbs on hand for cooking.


It's also not a bad time to start with this project now. Since the seasons are changing, I can get a fresh start with seasonally appropriate plants. As soon as I figure out what those are. I have a little bit of research to do.

SWF seeking...?

I was thinking of moving to the city, but it's just really expensive to live there. (I mean, it's worth the money, but it's still a lot of money.) So I went on one of those roommate finder websites to see if I could find some cool people to live with - and more importantly split rent with!

I had never done an online roommate search so I wasn't exactly prepared for all the questions they were going to ask me about myself and my potential roommates. I expected the basics like smoker or non-smoker, but you can actually search by age, gender, sexual orientation, profession (choices include student, professional, retired or 'others'), and whether you have a pet or a child.*

That surprised me, because I thought you weren't allowed to ask questions like that (something about the Fair Housing Act not letting you discriminate). It's not a DATING site! Although there is the option to choose 'not disclosed' (for yourself) or 'doesn't matter' (for your potential roommates) on certain questions, some of it still seemed a little weird to me. but I guess because it's optional and since the goal of the sites are to bring togethe potential roommates and not necessarily tenants/landlords, then it might be a grey area.

I know that the federal law does not include sexual orientation, but many states - including New York - do protect against this kind of discrimination...  so I'm not completely sure what makes it okay to ask for this information on a website for roommates. Maybe because it's optional? Maybe because websites are protected as Internet 'forums'? I don't know.

But it all makes me wonder...

If you're going to live with someone, I guess there are some reasons why you'd want to know personal kinds of information about a potential roommate... If you have a young child, you might not want to live with a college student who parties all night long. (Or, if you're someone who parties all night long, you might not want to live with someone who has a young child.) Or if you're in a long distance relationship, your signficant other might get jealous if you were living with someone you could possibly be romantically become entangled with... so in that case the gender and sexual orientation of your potential roommates might actually matter.

I also know that certain religions don't allow living with members of the opposite sex (even if it's platonic) so it wouldn't necessarily be discrimination based on gender if you didn't want to share a bedroom or bathroom with someone who isn't your gender.

While technically it would be discrimination if someone specified "I want a straight, white roommate", it's not exactly the same as discriminating against a potential employee. It's more like "I'm a racist homophobic bigot and you don't want to live with me anyway." (And that wouldn't just apply to gay people either; I'm straight and white, but I wouldn't want to live with a racist homophobic bigot either!)

And theoretically, if you're welcoming a roommate into your home... you should have a right to be somewhat discerning about who you live with. It's not a public space.  Who you live with is a personal choice. It seems shitty to say it, but I don't want to live with someone if I disagree with their 'morals' (or really, if they would disagree with mine... or my lack thereof). But then... there's so much that goes into sharing a living space with someone. I wouldn't want to live with someone who eats lots of tuna fish or does drugs or never bathes or snores or breeds cats or listens to Celine Dion all day. I wish there was a website that would help me find a roommate using search criteria like that!

But when it comes to sexual orientation, I don't care who they're sleeping with as long as they do it in their room and not on the kitchen table where I eat breakfast!

*Information on search criteria came from RoommateClick.com and EasyRoommate.com which are the only two sites I checked out. I can't speak for any other sites.

Foodie Friday: Cooking with Stainless Steel

I know this is a little late and it's technically Foodie Saturday now. Sorry!

I love stainless steel kitchen stuff. I just think it looks modern and cool. My fantasy kitchen would be full of stainless steel appliances, but in the meantime, there are a lot of smaller kitchen items that I can shop for to get the look. Right now I'm really liking Blomus stainless steel kitchen accessories.

I love this cheese slicer. This would get a lot of use in my kitchen because I'm one of those people who believe that cheese, like Nutella, improves almost every dish. (Okay, well, they probably wouldn't work together. Choose one or the other to be safe.)


I also really like this towel clip. I'd probably need more than one because I always make a huge mess when I'm cooking or baking.


And of course, you've also got to have a stainless steel egg lifter. I didn't realize until this moment that I do, in fact, need an egg lifter, but now I'm totally convinced that I do.



I'm also a really big tea lover, so I basically want all of the Blomus stainless steel tea accessories.

Stainless steel tea glasses are a fun alternative to regular mugs:



This teapot is adorable:



And I love these tea sticks:



And finally some Blomus stainless steel salad bowls - practical and good for counter top decorative purposes.

My Stately Manor Needs a Garden

I was having a little bit of fun the other day writing about what I would do if I had one of those huge stately manor type mansions that every family on every soap opera seems to have. I've talked mailboxes and fancy address plaques, but one thing I didn't really cover was the garden. What's a stately manor without some well-manicured gardens, right?

So I've been doing a little fantasy shopping for some decorative items for my many lovely gardens. Like this sun and moon sundial:



And this Whitehall patio furniture:


And what fancy estate would be complete without an old-school door knocker? Makes it much easier to imagine a butler answering the door:


And to round out the garden decor, I really like these nature hooks. You can use them to hang plants, lanterns, bird feeders, hanging bird baths, wind chimes, or whatever else you can think of. Of course when I say "you", I mean my fantasy gardener, because I'm definitely going to need one to keep all of these stately gardens looking nice.



I think someone should just go ahead and give me a stately manor now that I've got all of these amazing decorating plans all laid out.

My Stately Manor

Confession time: I watched One Life to Live today. I have SoapNet and sometimes I'm not afraid to use it. I always have to laugh at how every soap has its own set of super powerful families with decades long roots in some small town and huge mansions and "family businesses" that are actually huge corporations that just happen to be set in said little town. On OLTL the big mansions even have names - Llanfair and La Boulet. (Admittedly the La Boulet naming was mostly played for laughs.)

If I ever own a stately manor, it'll have a name like GardenLakeGlenCrest Estates and I'll get a fancy address sign like this:


Nice, right? Or maybe I'll go for the wall-mounted address plaque style instead. Something like this:




I'll probably just get both. Can't be too careful. And of course I'll need one of these, because everyone needs to know how exclusive my fancy estate is:


Or I could go poetic and make people think that I'm some sort of mysterious reclusive writer or artist or something:



Of course, if you're rich enough to afford your own stately manor, you have to switch out your address plaques for all of the major holidays.
Wait, I found it! The perfect plaque for my manor house. It's beautiful. It's unique. It's sophisticated. It's classy.

What do you think? Perfect, isn't it?

It's Slumber Party Time!

So the time has come... the time I've dreaded for so many years... it's slumber party time.

Yes, my daughter is finally old enough - and has begged enough times - for her first real slumber party. Since summer is almost over, I decided to let her go out with one last big hooorah... an end-of-summer sleepover to end all sleepovers.

Of course, my last sleepover was probably a good 20 years ago and I didn't exactly plan that one myself... so I'm a little worried about what I'm getting myself into. Luckily for me, as a super-awesome blogger (ahem) I've got the Internet to help me out (thank you very much Local.com).

Unfortunately, my house is not readily equipped for 6-10 girls as overnight guests. So I'm going to have to pick up some extra pillows, blankets and the piece de resistance: comfortable air mattresses. (If there's one thing I do remember from sleepovers back in the day, it's that sleeping on a hard floor is never comfortable - no matter how nice your sleeping bag is.)

According to my daughter, the most important thing is the food. We can't get by with just standard snacks. We need candy. Not just any old candy... we need special candy.

We need pizza. Not just any old pizza... we need the best pizza in New York. We need lots of chips, popcorn for watching DVDs, and no slumber party would be completely without making 'Smores. (But the standard chocolate and marshmallows won't do. It's got to be Nutella chocolate hazelnut spread. Hell, I don't blame her, that stuff is good.)

Any good sleepover also means manicures and pedicures... makeovers and facials... and a good old fashioned game of "True or Dare". But did I mention this is an end-of-summer sleepover? That means beach towels and sunglasses. That means Hawaiian leis, grass skirts, and coconut bras. Time for a visit to a few costume shops.

I need some kind of girly craft project (any ideas?) and no slumber party would be complete without a few scary stories to tell after dark. (Not too scary, I don't want to be up all night with scared tweens!)

Wish me luck!! I'm gonna need it.
*Thank you to Local.com for saving my slumber party throwing ass. (Local.com is a local search engine. More than just an online yellowpages, Local.com is a hybrid of the following sites - Citysearch.com, Yelp.com, Yellowpages.com, Superages.com).

Safe Gardening

I really like gardening. And by that, I mean that I really like the idea of gardening. In practice I find it a little intimidating. It's not like I totally suck at it - I can keep houseplants alive (most of the time), and I've done the whole herb garden on the windowsill thing. I've just never done a full-scale "real" garden, and I'd like to be able to someday. But I know that if I launch right into that now, it'll be a mess.

So I'm investing in some outdoor planters as a sort of stepping stone. It's a step up from house plants, and it lets me experiment with soil and fertilizer and sun and outdoor conditions and all of that fun stuff, but it's still sort of contained and not overwhelming. I'm also going to upgrade the windowsill herb garden to a window box planter herb garden. Maybe I'll even go totally wild and try a tomato plant or something.

And even if some of the plants don't exactly survive my expert gardening skills, at least the decorative planters will still look nice.



Of course, knowing me I'm going to procrastinate and end up with an empty planter sitting inside my house mocking me for months before I ever get around to planting anything. It's all about the baby steps.

Somebody Buy Me A Bobi

I gave a friend of mine a ride home the other day, and someone on her street had the coolest mailbox ever. Okay, maybe not the coolest ever, I'm sure there are some cooler mailboxes in igloos or historical examples involving the Pony Express or something, but as contemporary mailboxes go it was pretty darn cool. Check it out (this isn't the actual one that I saw but it's the same style):


Cute, right? I think it looks like a little robot. I half expect it to walk inside on its own and tell me what I got in the mail that day, or shoot little laser beams at any unauthorized person who tries to get in. ...yeah, okay, so I might have issues. But it does look like a robot.

Apparently they're called Bobi mailboxes, and they're made in a little town in Finland by a company that was founded by two brothers. Leave it to those Scandinavian and/or Nordic countries to be on the cutting edge of mailbox design. Why have a regular old boring mailbox when you could have a cool looking mailbox robot and be the envy of the entire neighborhood?

So, who wants to buy me a bobi mailbox of my own? They come in a bunch of sizes and colors. Personally, I'm partial to the basic stainless steel ones, because I think they look the most robot-like, but I'm also kinda liking the red ones too. I wouldn't even necessarily just use it as a mailbox, either - I'd put one of the little ones in my house and use it to hold magazines or recipes or something like that. And I'm sure the real robot version is just a few short years away...right?

Fantasy Office Decorating: Rugs

We're on a fantasy office decorating kick again. This happens lately every time one of us mentions Pregnancy Pact, one of the most Lifetimey movies that Lifetime has made in years, featuring a character who works for a super cool vlog for teens based out of a "hip" and "trendy" office. It always sets us off on a discussion about the type of office that we want for our empire one day.

We've decided that we need rugs, and not some thin gray crappy generic office carpeting either. We're thinking of going the oriental rugs route, for a few reasons:

a) We're classy and sophisticated like that.
b) We need a nice place to sit when we're organizing our collection of Cosmo clippings
c) We're prioritizing comfort over productivity.
d) Did we mention we're really classy?

This rug + us and our laptops + a stack of Cosmos + pizza and/or Doritos = blogging gold.


*Decorating fantasies brought to you by eSaleRugs.com.