What is this?

An awesome playhouse for the kids? An office? A mother-in-law apartment?

Nope. It's a chicken coop.

I found it at diggingfood.com, a Seattle-based blog about growing your own food, cooking with it, and generally remembering that your plot of land in the city can be put to good use. She's one of the featured home-gardeners in this month's Sunset magazine.

I have been obsessed with gardening lately. Haven't, uh, done much, but I am trying to get my act together. I was delighted to learn that my mint and chives returned after a weird winter. I just bought a few kinds of lettuce, some peas, and more mint. I recently sat on a a plane to NYC and made use of the 5 1/2 hour flight to read THIS and Vegetable Gardening Simple Steps To Success
and made a list of what I want to plant and when.

I have a lot to do in addition to this. I bought 2 cone compost bins from a co-worker and now I need to figure out how to actually install them (I need to bury part of it in the ground). I have been reading thecompostbin.com, too. We have a lot of food waste (as most people do) which is something I am trying to figure out and reduce, and then also just make better use of the scraps. I wish I could say all of this is motivated by my inner hippie, but honestly, I just hate how quickly the trash piles up at our house and I hate lugging bags of compost to the backyard.


To help with this new composting program, yesterday I parked THIS in the new kitchen. I just need to remember to actually use it. Tossing eggs and coffee grounds into the garbage will be quite a habit to break, I am afraid.

Is anyone gardening yet? Planted anything yet? Growing anything yet? Are any of you going to grow anything for the first time this year? I would like to hear about it. Oh, and send good garden blogs my way, please.

Isuwannee!

Friend of the blog Jamie Meares is in the NY Times today. Not just a mention, but a quote, a photo, the whole enchilada.

Jamie writes Isuwannee one of my all time favorite blogs. At least it always is until I see yet another one of those "Hey-I-am-going-on-a-vacation" posts, because I swear to god that lucky bitch goes away every other weekend. But I'm not bitter or anything.

You can read the article (about the demise of Domino) HERE.

Calm. Cool. Collected.

Love this place. You can see more HERE.





(Those lamps are from one of my favorite stores, Red Ticking.)

Garden lust.

I have been obsessing over HER work and THIS store, via THIS blog.











Deborah Silver & Co landscaping.

Abbey's place.

Hey, I don't know how I missed this days ago, but friend of the blog Abbey Nova was featured in Page Six Magazine. I love her place. You can see the story and photos HERE and HERE .

(Incidentally, talent runs deep in the family. Her father is Craig Nova, acclaimed novelist. If you're going to pick up on of his books, he recommends starting with Cruisers.)

The dollhouse from Hell (or Pottery Barn).

Oh, Mamacita. You kill me.

HERE.

Glammed-up kitchen.

I remember this photo from Met Home a while back. I remember specifically that this was the issues I decided Met Home might be worth buying again.

Found the photo HERE. What a useful blog for all things kitchen-related.

Hey - can anyone answer this? Our kitchen contractor says that our marble slab will need to be cut and then fitted together. He says the seam will be barely visible. I don't believe this is necessary. I need some info from those of you who have installed marble counters.

Oh god, I am so glad she said it...

...because it's what we were all thinking.

I mean, Domino... seriously? THIS?

P.S. I heart Megan.

Joy.

Best wedding photo I have ever seen.

How much joy is in this photo? Too much, if "too much" is even possible when it comes to pure happiness.

Thanks to SGM, world's best pop culture commentator, for sending me a link to the BLOG where this photo can be found. She sent the link and noted, "(This blog) is kind of a NYC I Suwannee." (Couldn't be a better compliment, as far as I am concerned.)

Too busy to offer up a good post today, so I encourage you to read:


THIS blog.

THIS blog.

And THIS blog.


I can't believe it's November. I can't believe Thanksgiving is 2 weeks away. Where did my year go? I want my year back, dammit.

Does everyone have plans for T-day? What are you doing? Staying or going? Cooking? And what about Christmas? Has anyone started shopping?

I want some details.

I hope Santa brings me the GIANT bottle of Chanel Gardenia. Not the one in the crappy white plastic bottle, the awesome huge glass bottle, thank you. Got it, Santa?