Month: May 2015

Make Sure Artificial Turf is LEAD-free

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As more people are choosing artificial turf to reduce water use it is SUPER IMPORTANT that you make sure yours is LEAD-FREE. 

Also, I personally only recommend artificial turf when other landscaping solutions won’t work. It’s always my LAST CHOICE for a few reasons:

1) it gets quite warm and does not aid in air cooling through evapotranspiration like living plants do.  I’m concerned about the global warming implications of this. 

2) I’m concerned about how it will create micro particles of plastic as it degrades over time. 

Low-water use plants (there are SO many options), mulch, decorative pebbles, decomposed granite and silica-free sand are always items I consider before synthetic grass. 

Concerns about lead and synthetic turf: http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/tips/artificialturf.htm

How to test if your grass has lead: http://www.ceh.org/lead-in-artificial-turf/

Lamps are like Earrings for a Room

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My living room looked good but not “finished.” “It’s missing something,” I thought to myself. I allowed my subconscious to ponder the problem, I find these sorts of things are best solved indirectly.  You can’t number crunch your way to knowing what’s missing.

Then my family went away for the weekend and booked a room in a century-old Spanish-style home in Santa Barbara. The owner had done an amazing job of furnishing the space, and I was struck by the humongous Chinese silk lamps on the dresser in the bedroom. “That’s what I’m missing,” I thought to myself, “My living room needs some earrings!” You see the reason I had never thought of lamps as a solution, was because this area wasn’t in particular need of LIGHT, and my conscious mind kept thinking “Nope, no light needed here.” But my subconscious immediately recognized the sparkle that lamps would give to the space.

I scored the pair below on Ebay for about $100 and prayed that they would arrive intact with all that glass. Thankfully they did, and once I put them in place I knew immediately I needed to paint the bases black to help delineate them from the bureau that they sit on. You can see how nicely they set-off the space.  Just like earrings, an outfit might be great without them, but find just the right jewelry and suddenly you have an ensemble. These vintage lamps completed my tableau perfectly. (Enter sigh of satisfaction here…)

Be a spark in the world!

#Sparkle

#MakingAHome