If you happen to be house-ridden by a blizzard this Winter, you'll probably pounce at the first chance you get to drive into town. While you may have rock salt at the ready, you should pause before scattering those granules: rock salt can actually be quite harmful to the environment. Excess salt can make the soil more acidic, disrupting the growth of your plants. Traditional rock salt is Sodium Read more

Crystal or ceramic vases are beautiful, but they can look fussy, especially if you're decorating with wilder, more rustic flowers. If you're feeling the urge to go a bit more au naturel, try reusing something you might already have lying around the house: an empty glass milk bottle. Milk bottles come in multiple sizes (larger for regular milk, smaller for cream), and make simple and pretty Read more

If you live in the northern hemisphere and haven't yet switched the direction of your ceiling fan's blades, now's the time to do so. You want to make sure that the blades' direction is switched from moving in a counterclockwise direction to a clockwise direction. To do so, just flip the switch at the base so that the blades rotate clockwise (that's when you're looking up at it from below). By Read more

When I was at the flea market last weekend, I noticed there were a lot of people selling furniture reupholstered in recycled grain, flour, and coffee sacks, which I had seen before (and adored) on a smaller scale on pillows and storage totes. I love the rustic look of a well-worn coffee or grain sack, especially when juxtaposed with a classically-shaped chair, and I'm all about finding new uses Read more

High-rise dwellers and cramped urban home owners often have to minimize the amount of vegetation their homes can sustain. It's often simply a matter of space: balconies and parking strips do not a garden make. Or do they? Turns out, it depends on what type of container you have in your garden toolbox. If you're the owner of an underused green thumb, you'll be excited to learn about Woolly Read more

New online magazine Pure Green Living, a bimonthly online publication for green living and design, just launched its second issue. While I'm a little late to learn of its arrival on the scene (its first issue debuted in July), I couldn't be any more excited. The magazine features handmade and independent designers and artists, eco style picks, new products and ideas, DIY projects, green homes, Read more

I'm a sucker for furniture made of salvaged materials — one of the few things Alicia Silverstone and I have in common — but it can be hard to strike the right balance. Reclaimed furniture tends to either be a little too rustic and unfinished for my taste or a little too expensive for my budget. Which is why I was excited to find Bay Area-based Reason Furniture Design during my recent quest Read more

The allure of treehouses hasn't faded for me, even though I'm well past the age of deserving one as a playhouse. Luckily, German design company Baumraum doesn't discriminate against adults in need of a good treehouse: in fact, the company specializes in the planning and completion of these elevated structures. The company combines the expertise of an architect, a landscape architect, a tree Read more

While I do love living with my four-legged canine friend, sometimes I worry that our house might retain a little of that doggy smell. Even though no one's ever actually said this, I'm definitely paranoid about the matter. So, to combat dog hair and dog odor, I vacuum our house daily. However, when I do a weekend deep clean, I always grab sprigs of rosemary from the bushes outside of our Read more

One of my favorite magazines, Good, recently posted a link to the new site This We Know, which compiles and synthesizes US government data. The site is still in its infancy, but it's already proving to be a great tool for looking up information such as unemployment rates and cancer rates per city. It's a little like a more comprehensive, at-your-fingertips Self guide for healthiest cities. One Read more