I'm a shameless fan of Trader Joes. I love their little shelf of new products and usually try one new thing each week. I would not normally write up my grocery store findings, although I got really excited about the cookie butter. Try these. They are somewhere between a jalapeno and a bell pepper on the heat spectrum, fruit sweet and tangy.
Read MoreI took a ceramics class at the Sharon Art Studio in Golden Gate Park shortly after I graduated from a great school for design with a degree in psychology. I learned how to throw clay and play with glazes, but I was no Jonathan Adler. Today's Etsy find is from ceramicist Heather Dahl's shop Dahlhaus. I think I first spotted her vases at this little store called Anthropologie, but a fuller offering is on her Etsy site. I want one in every color!
Read MoreApartment Therapy is tallying the votes for the best design + DIY blogs of 2012. I love these lists because I am constantly looking for new inspiration and projects and there are a lot of really smart small/new blogs on the list of nominees. Poppy Haus made the list yesterday. Getting the word out that you even exist is a major challenge for a new blog, and AT has a vast readership. Just last night I got a little shout out on Maxwell's Daily Finds! If you like Poppy Haus you can cast your vote here: BEST DIY BLOG.
Read MoreI hadn't bothered to replace the ugly Home depot standard issue door mat on our back patio since we've moved in, which is kind of sad since the ugly mat was in plain view of our eat in kitchen. I picked up an inexpensive boring mat today and marked it off with painters tape into a Union Jack design, before coating it with satin finish spray paint. It cost me under $10 and took about 5 minutes. What was I waiting for?
Read MoreI love Lotta Jansdotter's simple, beautiful design style. Inspired by the fact that she is self taught, I started experimenting with block printing. After reading up on it and watching a few instructional YouTube videos I decided it would probably be a piece of cake. It was not a piece of cake. For starters, instead of beginning with a basic shape I decided to make this thing which required carving a lot of detail into a piece of rubber, using a specialized tool for the first time.
Read MoreMake + Haus is the new name and online home for the blog Poppy Haus. Established in 2011, the blog archive now contains hundreds of original design projects and whole food recipes, many featured on the likes of Apartment Therapy, Martha Stewart, Design*Sponge, Curbly, and Epicurious.
