How to Pick a Unique Wedding Gift
Wear some comfortable shoes and be well rested. We’re hitting the antique malls today in search of the perfect wedding present for an eclectic couple. If you decide to go off the reservation and not buy from the registry then you’re in for a lengthy search but isn’t it worth it? It’ll take about six [...]
The Best Cheap Candles
Feeling the need for a little Frida Kahlo in your life? Candle budget shrinking after the Christmas spend-a-thon? One of my favorite – and cheap looks – is the Mexican religious votive, a tall candle poured into glass, emblazoned with garish religious scenes or pictures of the Virgin of Guadeloupe. Available at many local supermarkets, [...]
Add Instant Patina to Garden Ornaments
Want to add some instant age to a garden ornament or plaster piece? If that bright spanking white surface is making your eyes flicker, bring it down by sponging on paint. Use a neutral taupe color and a very wet sponge. With broad strokes, wipe the object down with watery paint. Don’t evenly coat if [...]
How to Fill Your Home with Fragrance
I walked into an antique store the other day and nearly swooned from the heavenly fragrance that filled the air. Whoa – the gents were piping it in by the gallon, hypnotizing the haus fraus into buying. As I rounded the corner past French ormolu, I came to the culprit: a table loaded with hundreds [...]
How to Wrap Gifts Creatively without Supplies
People insist on getting gifts. There’s no changing their minds. They have birthdays, weddings, and special days to honor roles of Mother and Father. In any calendar year you’ll also be faced with housewarmings, a christening or two, innumerable showers, get-well situations, and yes, the horrors of Valentine’s Day. The present part isn’t so bad. [...]
Find Bliss with a Porch Swing or Hammock
When my sister came into town recently we were walking through Target and chanced upon a porch swing. She and I both leaped for it and began immediately rocking. Heads lolling back, eyes closed, the repetitive swaying was total bliss. “Oh My God.” “I know. I actually feel my mental health–” “Returning?” Yes, add a [...]
How to Clean Your House with Smudge Sticks
Problem: House needs mojo cleansing after bad breakup or major emotional meltdown. It’ something Native-Americans and others believe in doing – burning a bundle of odd-smelling dried sage inside a dwelling. The sticks “cleanse” the house of anything bad and enable you to create a more sacred space. Some say they have magical protective powers. [...]
Make a Romantic Bed Canopy
Inside many a cosmopolitan woman with rigorously great taste, a darker design ethic lurks. Call it closet romanticism. It’s the polar opposite of the way I really live, but I sometimes salivate over pie safes draped in white lace, sets of floral china, and a lifestyle that includes actually wearing Nannys cameo pin to afternoon [...]
How to Escape Decorating Inertia
Whatever the motivation — change of season, change of relationship, change of aesthetic — when you NEED to alter your living space, boy, do you know. I had lived with a charming assortment of found objects/junk for years, to the point that I was starting to identify with my ages-old, five boyfriends-ago, stained and burdened-with-memories [...]
Treat Your Room to Textured Paint
Tired of looking at those drab, imperfect walls? You know, the ones that are pock-marked from countless wallpaper scrapings, close encounters with heavy furniture or just the ravages of old age? Textured paint to the rescue! This is the quickest, easiest fix around to give your walls an updated look, while hiding all of life’s [...]
Easy Flower Arrangements In 5 Minutes
The hottest new flower arrangement for your house is the simplest new flower arrangement for your house. Pave flowers are a look even the village idiot can pull off and it will look like one of Martha’s minions personally arranged it. Like the diamonds from which the style takes its name, Pave flowers means a [...]
How to Choose Unique Antiques
Looking for a great antiques town? Portsmouth, New Hampshire is an artist’s rendering of the perfect New England village. Maybe a bit too slicked-up and rendered, but I am being picky. It is truly beautiful, especially the 18th century rowhouses on winding lanes that mimic the path of many a drunken sailor heading home from [...]
Cheap Holiday Decorating Tips
Need help with holiday decorating? Here’s how to make your home look festive while still staying within Scrooge’s budget. Holiday Centerpiece. Gather imitation red apples, green pears and pine cones of all sizes. Place in a silver bowl, crystal bowl, wrought iron basket or wicker. If your pine cones are the unscented type and aren’t [...]
Instant Bedroom Makeover
Our bedroom furniture was looking worn and blah. Like Jocelyn Wildenstein, it needed a new facelift. I needed something quick, inexpensive and instantly updating. What to do? A can of white spray paint to the rescue! In an afternoon I primed, then spray painted our headboard, both nightstands and the table lamps a fresh, clean [...]
Easy Care for Wrought Iron
There’s no reason to get over wrought. Everyone has wrought iron these days. Whether it be candle sticks, wall sconces or just a doo-dad; they can be a pain to keep dust free. Here’s the easy way to keep them clean, as handed down to me by the Queen of Domesticity, my mother. Just place [...]
How to Make an Easy Fire
My brothers and my father have a phrase, the “cheater’s fire.” This means a fire made by any other means than the continual stuffing of crumpled-up newspaper around kindling, while praying that the whole thing catches. Using gas or fake logs to help the fire along is a big no-no because it’s not manly. Many’s [...]
How to Quickly Sort a Room and Organize It
The house was bringing Baby down. I was a victim of Acquisition Creep, and something had to be done or I’d be wallowing in old prom dresses forever. I realized that I hadn’t had a good Spring Clean since I moved here in 1999. The closets were loaded down with junk; it was time. So [...]
Design a Sexy Bedroom
Yes, Virginia, every woman needs a room of her own. It’s your intimate lair, the sanctum that readies you to conquer the world. If it is not, then it’s time to create that fantasy. Your bedroom should enchant you first and, secondarily, anyone who is privileged enough to get an invite. Unlike the public spaces [...]