• Desire to Inspire loves couches and alcoves.
• AT:SF creates a cool wallpapered desk nook.
• Daily Dose is wild for mini pendants.
• You Grow Girl captures a chocolate cherry sunflower.
• LilSugar wants to know how many hours of sleep you get.
• This Old House checks out insulation made from soybeans.
• Design*Sponge shows you a cool nightstand reno.
• Decor8 tracks down more letterpress loveliness.
• Re-Nest brings you the green kitchen of the year.

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Now that you know the household uses for white vinegar, I thought you might like to know how you can expand its use to your garden. As you may remember, white vinegar is an eco-friendly product, and it's also cheap: You can buy a gallon of white vinegar for less than $3.

The word "vinegar" is from the French term vin aigre, meaning "sour wine." White vinegar is made from allowing a distilled alcohol, like white wine, vodka, or gin, to oxidize. This changes the chemical components of the alcohol, making it more sour, but also more useful.

To find out how you can use white vinegar in your garden, read more

The day after my wedding, one of my bridesmaids and I, exhausted from the weekend's events, popped into a matinee of Mamma Mia. While our reviews were mixed (please, please let me never hear Pierce Brosnan sing again), one element of the film got an enthusiastic thumbs up: the gorgeous textiles. I was absolutely inspired by the film's bedding, tablecloths, and pillows. The bright colors, suzanis, folksy embroidery, and busy patterns were absolute eye candy.

Interested in integrating some of these patterns into your home? Find out where you can get them when you read more

As you may know, Bravo’s series Top Design will be back for its second season on Wednesday, Sept. 3, with a new look, new producers, and a new host. Lucky me, I recently had the chance to participate in a conference call with the new host, celebrated fashion model and design aficionado India Hicks, as well as world-renowned designer Todd Oldham, who has moved over to a new role as the contestant's mentor. It was really a blast to hear from both of them, and I can't wait for the season to begin.

Here are some of the highlights:

On designing on a budget:

It’s an old-fashioned notion to think that style has anything to do with money. Top Design, this season especially, has a great evidence of that because many of the challenges had . . . don’t have anything to do with money but have to do with ingenuity. I’ve seen very, very rich affairs that look pretty awful. So I’ve never been too confused what money gets you.

On common design mistakes that people fall into:

I always find that one of the worst disasters I see is just people having someone else decide what they need around themselves. No matter how beautiful [something] is, if it doesn’t really suit the person I think that’s a much bigger disconnect than maybe having some tastes that everyone might not like.

To hear more of what Todd had to say during the call, read more

The London house of Sienna Miller — who has recently been getting slack for dating married actor Balthazar Getty and appearing topless in photos with him — has been vandalized, spray-painted with the word "SLUT" and a pseudo-Satanic circular symbol, according to the Sun. The vandalism apparently occurred despite a burglar alarm system and security lights at the house. We all can think what we want about the couple's relationship, but I think it's pretty terrible that this should happen at Miller's own home. It would certainly make me feel unsafe.

Has your home ever been vandalized? Your neighbors' homes? What security measures do you have installed to prevent and protect yourself from this sort of thing?
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