CREATIVE SOLUTIONS | When it comes to indoor arrangements, of course we love the look of an armful of random cottage garden flowers tumbling loosely out of a vase. But we also love the opposite: a single flower displayed creatively on its own. Read more
EASY & AWESOME | While the soul-satisfying creaminess of ice cream makes it a great comfort treat any time of the year, coarse and crystalline granita is the more refreshing, energizing ice dessert for long, hot summer days.
Granita, a granulated ice dish with Italian and Middle Eastern roots (click here for The Atlantic backgrounder), is concocted from just three ingredients: fresh fruit, sugar and water. It could not be simpler to make. Read more
CHEAP + EFFECTIVE | Can you believe the lengths even celebrities go to when they want to convince the public of the superiority of an inexpensive beauty product? Case in point: the 2005 episode of the Tyra Banks Show where Tyra whipped herself and the members of her studio audience into a whirling-dervish-worthy frenzy before presenting each attendee with a bedazzled tub of her go-to body moisturizer.
THE CREATIVE SOLUTION | Do you live with a teen daughter who changes her outfit multiple times before bouncing out the door in the morning leaving a mile-high mound of clothes behind on her bedroom floor? Are you providing shelter for a tween son (or maybe bunking with a partner) who, instead of emptying his pockets and hanging up his pants, drops his drawers by the side of the bed before tucking in for the night?
After confiding my annoyance at the ongoing piles threatening to devour the bedrooms of my young, my tidy friend Tara suggested I use an inexpensive tool that had worked miracles at her house. Read more
QUICK & DELISH | Looking for a new spin on potato salad that can’t possibly spoil the way egg-and-mayonnaise-based ones can? This potato salad is so flavour-rich that you’ll want to make it all year round and gobble it up while it’s fresh and still warm in the bowl. Read more
NEW NOW NEXT | There’s a new luxury handbag in town and it’s vying for the affections of those who would shell out $1300 for Louis Vuitton’s legendary Neverfull or $1,000 for 3.1 Phillip Lim’s Pashli satchel.
Mezzi matches its high-end competitors for quality and beauty and then goes one step further by packing tracker technology inside its handbags, briefcases and totes. It’s difficult to permanently misplace a Mezzi because each one features a “seamlessly integrated MEZZI Trackr allowing wireless connectivity” between it and your smartphone.
Now that’s a great idea; but really, you don’t need to buy a Mezzi handbag if its just its tracker technology that you want. You can make each and every one of your existing handbags (or your luggage, laptop, keys, whatever) Mezzi smart for as little as $18 with one of the new wave of tiny, inexpensive Bluetooth tracking devices.
FREE & ADDICTIVE | Last fall my husband and I took a group of enthusiasts to tour private gardens in the south of France. He was the landscape expert in charge, and I, along with a local tour guide/translator, was responsible for everything else.
I once lived for a year in Paris and spoke only French on a daily basis so I knew I would be able to get by linguistically on our trip, but I wanted to do more than that—I wanted my proficiency back. Read more
FROM THE VAULT | “Easy as sin” is how Deb Perelman at the famous food blog Smitten Kitchen describes her generic recipe for sweet German pancakes, which involve precisely two and a half minutes of prep time. “A delicious no-brainer” is the way I describe the most scrumptious dessert pancakes on the planet. Read more
SHOPPING AROUND | “The next thing I know you’ll be sleeping with that thing,” my husband joked recently after glancing at the Fjällräven Kånken that I’d casually flung on our bed. I know where this observation is coming from. It’s been eight months now since I purchased the mini version of this iconic Swedish backpack (originally designed in the 1970s for school children), and not a day has gone by that I haven’t used it—because it’s just that practical and unobtrusively cute.
Not a day that is until this past Monday. Read more
FROM THE VAULT | Although I wasn’t able to get everything organized in time for the Emmy Awards this year, I will be hosting a popcorn party for friends and family when the Oscars roll around on Sunday. Movies and popcorn are a winning combo, and in the past few weeks I’ve been scouring the Internet for recipes, whipping up toppings and popping up a storm on my stovetop. Read more