FRIDAY FINDS

I spoke at a local school’s career day yesterday. It was, um, odd. And then I looked around and found out that of the other people speaking at the career day, two were good friends a year older than me, and another two were two years old and two years younger than me. And I though, huh, I guess we are officially at that age when you speak at career days. This astonishes me.

And that was sort of my week. Odd.

Anyway, let’s get into Friday Finds … from bug houses to people houses, here we go.

Urban Hedgerow photo via Gardenista

Can we all just agree that we’re not going to go out and BUY bug houses (no matter how pretty they are)? I hate to get preachy about what you should be buying and what you should be DIYing because everyone has different skills and priorities, but come on … if we can’t make our own bug houses maybe we ought to leave it up to the bugs.

You probably already read this blog. It’s funny and a little crazy, and this post is both with a little truth thrown in. She’s so right: You used to have to go out of your way to feel bad about your house and now it’s right there all the time. That said, save for maybe going a little TOO far into the land of gray paint, I’m comfortable that all of the design decisions in our house were made because I really love them, not because they were trendy at the time. Our all-white kitchen was white (although a different white) when we bought our house and it’s been like that since 1990. My grandmas BOTH had all white kitchens, so don’t tell me I did it because it’s a trend. I did it because I like it. And maybe it is also a trend, but I know I’ll like it for years to come.

Speaking of trends, you know how the whole chinosserie thing has been in for quite awhile (and again, one of my grandmas had plenty of it in her house for as long as I could remember)? For awhile I’ve been thinking, why don’t the big home stores get on that and start offering some affordable alternatives. Well Pier One listened in my brain and did just that. And now they have this cute, affordable coffee table that I’d happily buy and paint a nice bright color if I were in the market for a coffee table, which I’m not.

This is crazy: I see these Audobon prints everywhere for sale. Guess what? You can download them for free and print them yourself!

This article on producing mass quantities of cut flowers applies principles that can be used in any garden.

I’m with Linda: When my phone digs a hole for me (or better yet, starts pulling weeds), then we can talk about technology helping grow the garden.

What’s on your agenda for the weekend? Will you be watching the Superbowl? Have a great weekend!