Terrariums: Contain Your Excitement

Irresistibly bad puns aside, NOTCOT has a great round-up of bell jars, terrariums, and hanging vases. If you are getting Spring fever and aren't lucky enough to be on the cusp of good weather like we are here in Dallas, get a head-start on your garden with a a little indoor ecosystem. More information on how in an old post here.


Via Apartment Therapy.

Best of the Blogs this Morning

Mini-Trend: Chain. Great catch by Design*Sponge.

Made-to-order turned wood tables by Robert Austin Gonzalez. His studio in Dumbo open by appointment: 718-596-7960. Via Apartment Therapy.

eSommelier: a self-contained digital sommelier for your home cellar. Via Product Dose.

Collect sites, bookmarks, images, videos, emails, and documents with Plum. A great way to hoard with out creating a fire-hazard. Via JoshSpear.com.

A recycled teak table via Crib Candy. I love the casters. I'm starting to wish that all of my tables were more portable.

Finally an Attractive Reclining Sofa

I've been griping about my husband's recliner for the duration of our marriage. Not because I'm a total nag. Not even because it's ugly (which, compared to the average puffy brown ultra-suede number, it is not). I gripe about it because a recliner has always meant that we can't sit together.

My husband wants the recliner because he has back pain. I can understand that. I sit in it when he's out of town and it's quite comfortable. I have always pined for a reclining sofa, but the options I've seen tend to be, well, hideous. They have built-in cup holders. Enough said.

Now I finally have a viable option for reclining and togetherness. Crib Candy featured this amazingly beautiful leather reclining sofa available in 16 colors! It is available as a 1, 2, and 3 seater. I couldn't find a price on the iqmatics site that sells this piece (don't you hate that!), but my guess is I'd have to save up for quite a while to afford one of these.

ShopGoodwill.com

I really wanted to run out to my local Salvation Army at lunch. There is one in Dallas with a huge storefront full of furniture, paintings, pottery, books, old records, and vintage clothing. Sure, you can go 99 times and find nothing, but on the 100th visit, you'll find something extraordinary.

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to leave, but I did have time to surf by my favorite online alternative: Shop Goodwill. Shop Goodwill is an auction site on which Goodwill locations around the country sell their coolest stuff.

My favorite thing to search for there is art. You can really find some amazing stuff. I have to admit, it's a little bit of a crap-shoot. Luckily, for me, that's what makes thrift shopping fun. The competition for the goods is every bit as fierce as on eBay, but all of the proceeds go to a very worthy cause.

A few years ago, I bought an amazing piece of outsider art called Sunday in Tahiti. The painting features an impressionist church in a jungle with a tiny Satan standing out front as passers-by scream in terror (not nearly as dark as it sounds). I mention this because Shop Goodwill is a great place to look for the kinds of vintage portraits and quirky landscapes we see on all of those fabulous walls of art in the magazines.

Stop by the site when you have 30 minutes or so to peruse their extensive listings.

Above, detail from a nude currently listed at $31.02.

Slow Cooking Double Time

Slow cooking is now twice as nice with the Hamilton Beach 6-Quart Double Dish Slow Cooker (say that three times fast). This would be great for keeping things warm at a party or for preparing a holiday feast.

$39.99 at Home Depot.

Via Product Dose.

Interesting Knick-Knack: Fawn Nodder

An updated, rather minimalist take on your typical dashboard nodder:

The Clear Fawn Nodder via Crib Candy.

Cool New Products

A few cool things I ran across this morning:

Housewares with a sense of whimsy by Design Academy graduate Sandra Djikstra. Via Style Hive.
The OXO Cover Can, which conveniently hides those "recycled" Target bags we're all using in the bathroom. Via Crib Candy.