Tag Archives: design

minimalism no more

Posted on May 17, 2013 | 38 Comments

WARNING: The following post could be upsetting to individuals who adhere to a minimalistic lifestyle; it could be disturbing to people who prefer their living spaces to be clean and uncluttered; and it could potentially unhinge those who seek solace and serenity in their homes.

ANOTHER WARNING: The following post could be dangerous to all the individuals in our lives who chuckled when they saw the wide open spaces in our home and assured us it would never stay that way once we procreated – because the delighted cackle that would follow the words “I told you so” would be so forceful and filled with so much self satisfaction it could sprain their necks/jaws/ribs.

A FINAL WARNING: The following before and after photos may indeed be disconcerting to experience in this virtual forum, but to those of you who dare to actually cross this threshold in person, I urge you to proceed with the utmost caution and with a great deal of attention to what toy/gadget/desperate attempt to distract/or actual tiny child might be underfoot.

Needless to say, after all that prefacing…we used to be minimalists (or we aspired anyway)…and well, we aren’t anymore. I present the evidence:

ONE PART OF OUR LIVING ROOM, BEFORE:

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THAT SAME PART OF OUR LIVING ROOM, AFTER:

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ANOTHER PART OF OUR LIVING ROOM, BEFORE:

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FROM A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT ANGLE, AFTER:

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REMEMBER THE RELATIVELY SLEEK LINES OF OUR DINING ROOM/BOOK NOOK?

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NOT ANYMORE:

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BACK THEN, I’D NEVER LET ANYTHING GET IN BETWEEN ME AND MY BOOKS:

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NOW, WELL, IT’S A WHOLE OTHER SITUATION:

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OF COURSE, ALONG WITH ALL THE CHAOS COMES THIS:

ian 4.5 months

SO WE ARE HARDLY COMPLAINING…

I assume most homes take a hit when the kid moves in? And do I presume correctly that it only gets crazier from here?

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laundry room button art

Posted on March 12, 2013 | 18 Comments

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Our laundry room is a crying shame. It’s dingy, it’s messy, it favors function over style a thousand-fold. This didn’t used to bother me. After all, it’s just a laundry room. But now that I have an infant and am doing approximately 65,000 loads of laundry per week, I find myself wishing it was a slightly nicer place to be. The best part about this laundry room is that it’s conveniently located on our main floor. But this can also be the worst part, i.e. if I accidentally leave the door open when friends stop by. Exhibit A (ok, I cleaned it up a bit for the photo shoot):

laundry room

I think we’ll eventually try to spruce up this room and do so with some color since the rest of our house is mostly white – I’m thinking black and white checkered floor, kermit green walls and a royal blue washer and dryer set. I’d like for it to be somewhat quirky — why not bring a modicum of fun to an activity that can feel like drudgery?

In the meantime, I wanted to share a little DIY I tackled a few months ago that has made a just a teeny bit of a difference in there and also served to organize my buttons so that I might actually use them. (Mind you, I did this pre-baby. Though this project didn’t take long, I’d unlikely have my hands free long enough to complete it now…)

First, I picked up a cork board from good ol’ Target. I chose frame-less but you could get one with a frame or even get several squares of those adhesive ones and cover a whole wall.  I also picked up a package of straight pins – I loved the colors of these:

straight pins

Then I gathered together all those extra buttons that came with sweaters or shirts over the years (or fell off clothing and never got re-attached…) I’m thinking: even if some of the sweaters are long gone, it’s possible their buttons will match a future piece of clothing. It was nice to have a variety of button sizes and colors to create some visual interest on the board.

I planned out my design by laying the buttons in the configuration I wanted – I went with my first initial but you could do a flower, a punctuation mark or something abstract.

button board

Once I had my idea set, I applied the buttons to the board by angling all the pins upwards slightly so that the buttons didn’t slide once I hung up the boards.  (Actually, I have to give a shout-out to Rob for reminding me about a little thing called gravity…)

And voila:

button board complete

Next time I need a button, all I need to do is go into the laundry room and choose the best one. And the next time I go in there to do a few loads of wash, I can look at this board and pretend that this is a fun place to be…

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taxi, please!

Posted on March 6, 2013 | 30 Comments

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So the theme of Ian’s nursery has turned out to be Nature and City: this wasn’t intentional but this is how it evolved. And I suppose it’s not that surprising…

For those of you who don’t know, Rob and I met when I was living in Manhattan and he was located in the South Bronx. We lived together in the South Bronx for a while before moving to the Nyack area, which is about 45 min from NYC. We are now excited to share both urban and suburban experiences with our son. In other words, we hope to keep enjoying all the great green space out here AND we intend to take him in to experience the art, food, music and general vibe of New York often.

Before I met Rob, I lived on the Upper East Side, on 75th Street between 1st Avenue and York. This means that I lived relatively far from any subway stations. It took me 12 minutes to walk to the 77th and Lexington Avenue stop. This isn’t that big of a deal UNLESS you are: 1. trudging through slush and snow 2. attempting to wear high heels 3. trying to not break a sweat 4. running very very late 5. nursing a bum knee/ankle/shoulder/pinky finger 6. carrying way too many bags filled with bricks.

Suffice it to say that I was usually dealing with at least five of the above conditions on any given day. This is why I often ended up hailing a cab. This is, in turn, why I often found myself bemoaning the price of cab fares to my mother while we were blabbing on the phone. And finally, this is why she took it upon herself (I swear I wasn’t angling for this) to occasionally drop cab money in the mail for me.  It was usually a 20 spot (or in her words, a “Jackson”) and was indeed spent rather quickly as I made my way around town.

Mind you, I was in my early/mid 30′s and could afford cabs (that is, as long as I skipped a few dinners). But his was cute of my mother. What made it cuter is that she drew these little taxi cabs with colored pencil on the outside of the envelopes. I saved these drawings and decided to get six them framed for Ian’s nursery.

taxi art

I had a custom matte made at Michael’s Craft Store and I couldn’t be happier with the end result. It hangs on one end of the full length mirror we installed horizontally:

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Ian just took his first trip into the city this week. Considering how tucked and snug he was in his car seat, I don’t think he got to see any cabs this time, but he certainly got to hear a lot of them HONK! That’s not a sound we hear too much in our neck of the woods.

ian in the city

The crazy thing is that Rob was a cab driver back when he lived in San Francisco. Therefore, he’s one of the few city dwellers I’d met who didn’t think it was a big deal to drive all over the city and who also managed to GET PARKING SPACES (and usually right in front of his destinations). I found this to be very intrepid. Let’s just say that once we met, I didn’t have to take too many subway rides or hail many cabs. I’ve pretty much had door-to-door service ever since.

Of course, the taxi envelopes eventually stopped arriving in the mail, but I am so glad I saved them. I knew I’d want to use them some day; I just didn’t know how.

This is all to say: thanks Granny. Ian and I look at them every day an will for years to come.

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commemorative mushroom…commemo-shroom?

Posted on February 22, 2013 | 11 Comments

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So my girls, Sara, Susan and Sandra, hosted a super-fun baby shower for me in the fall. It was a delightful affair complete with excellent food, adorable gifts and a lot of laughs. One thing that made it extra special was this crazy ceramic mushroom. Everyone signed it to commemorate the event:

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“Is this weird?” Sara asked me a few times. “Yes!” I answered, “And I love it!” Commemo-shroom did give everyone a good chuckle, sprouting up as it did between the cheese plate and the salad.

I couldn’t be more thrilled that Sara stumbled upon this it at a local mom and pop paint-your-own pottery place called Jill’s Ceramics located in West Nyack:

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I enjoyed going there to pick it up after it was glazed. This place has just about everything under the sun that you can paint to make your own. They do events and kids parties – what fun:

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You KNOW I’ll be going back to paint this. Lets call him my own personal truffle holder :

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…And of course I’ll want to visit Teddy the Parrot:

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…Not to mention Travis, the Llama, out back (!):

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Love this guy – and so did Sara and her daughter, Nora:

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Now, the mushroom is all glazed. It looks great in Ian’s nursery, poised up high (out of reach) on some little floating shelves in the corner (Container Store). It sits adjacent to his Miffy book and some teeny animal figurines his Aunt Marcy gave him:

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As my friends and regular readers know (I suppose the home tome header says it all), I have a thing for mushrooms. So of course this isn’t the only shroomy item in Ian’s world. Check out this muslin burp cloth:

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And these organic toadstool rattles from Uncommon Goods that my friend Josie got for him:

mushroom rattles Uncommon Goods

Thanks to all those who attended the shower and signed this special (and, yeah, somewhat strange) commemo-shroom – Sara, Susan, Sandra, Josie, Martina, Nancy, Bobbie Anne, Katie, Stefanie, and Rachelle – You know I love you girls!

And to the rest of my readers – I highly recommend Jill’s Ceramics (if you’re local) and, in general, I think these paint-your-own pottery pieces (storefronts where you can do this are all over the place) make wonderful commemorative gifts. Okay, maybe not everyone wants a mushroom…but a nice platter, a big salad bowl or decorative plate would certainly be appreciated by most…

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magical mobile

Posted on February 10, 2013 | 23 Comments

sqrl & bee mobile 2

In honor of upcoming Valentine’s Day, I would like to share how much I heart this mobile we hung in Ian’s nursery. Rob picked it out on etsy. It’s by Sqrl & Bee Studio, the creations of Melissa Frueh. It’s colorful, whimsical, and made of sustainably farmed wool. When you blow on it or push it, it looks like a bunch of dancing planets.

This fiber artist makes all different versions of this mobile. This one happens to be called: “Circus Came to Town.” I wasn’t sure if it would work well with the city/nature theme we have going on in there or jive with the backdrop fabric we got at IKEA years ago, but it’s all just crazy enough to work.

The best part about this is that Ian (six weeks old) is also starting to love it. I present an action shot:

baby mobile

Now that his eyes are focusing more, he can while away whole minutes in his crib gazing northward. This new hobby/fascination allows his mom to wash a dish, put on her socks, get a few gulps of coffee, or…post this blog. Woo hoo! The question is: what is our little superhero thinking as he watches this magical mobile bounce…?

***

I had every intention of posting a big ‘ol blog about his entire nursery…turns out I’ll be sharing in installments, for obvious reasons, ha! Hope you are all well!

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from the new new newness department

Posted on January 11, 2013 | 54 Comments

first day

We are glad to welcome Ian Fletcher Strati as the newest addition here at the home tome headquarters.  He “started” December 28 at 3:02 AM and has been heading up the Cute Department for two weeks now. Though he is new to the position, he is proving to be quite talented. Above, you can see him on his first day on the job. He was already good at holding hands.

We are pleased to see that he is already a fan of mushrooms. (Thank you Josie.):

Ian and mushrooms

He looks dashing in formalwear. (Thank you Sarah Z.):

Ian in Tuxedo

And he does a great imitation of a burrito. (Thank you Stefanie for the swaddling tutorials and blankets.):

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Sometimes he does sleep on the job, (thankfully!) and proves that real men really can rock polka dots. (Thank you Cousin Annette for the moses basket).

Ian in Moses basket

His hands are extremely small, yet busy, and he requires regular manicures so that he does not self-destruct (i.e. scratch his face.) (Thank you, Dara, for your delicate expertise.):

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Mostly, he is serving as a serious distraction to the other home tome employees. It’s admittedly difficult to blog, eat, sleep, pay bills, exercise or perform many formerly regular duties when we can now, instead,  just gaze at this:

Ian asleep

Stay tuned for notes on the the nursery…we have had WAY too much fun setting that up.

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holly jollies

Posted on December 17, 2012 | 25 Comments

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Let me start off this otherwise lighthearted holiday post by saying that I hope we can bring our baby boy (due Dec 26) up a country with less access to guns and more access to help for mental health. The news out of CT is gut-wrenching and my heart goes out to all those affected.

***

While we have been spending a lot of time in the last month decorating the nursery (you know there will eventually be a post on that) and trying to proactively earn a PhD in the finer points of baby swaddling, we have also squeezed in a little bit of Christmas. Okay, more than a bit. Here are some favorite holiday baubles we have around the nest, both old and new.

Like the arrangement above, which I call the “vignette.” We love this silver leaf floating shelf left behind by the previous owners. It seems a perfect spot for my first white poinsettia. I’m digging how this flower (plant?) goes with our 1932 New Yorker cover featuring none other than Santa (thank you Martina), and the “Hans Brinkner and his Sister” skating on a canal print I snaked (with permission) from my mom’s house last year. I suppose some day I’ll get around to framing those. That tall, flute-ish, flute-wielding angel is from Marshalls circa 2010. And the little slate Xmas tree to the left? I’ve been schlepping that little guy around for years – he was one of my first Christmas decorations.

We are also enjoying this macrame Santa made by my mother-in-law Sandy and given to us last year:

Macrame Santa

She made him for Christmas in 1976. I know my mom was also into macrame around this time and we had a few homemade hanging planters in our house back in Wisconsin, but I don’t personally know anything about it. Sandy told me she went to classes at a woman’s house in the neighborhood where they lived in Columbus, OH. She also learned how to make a Christmas tree that was so easy that she volunteered to teach some 4th and 5th graders how to make it. She remembers that there was a special project board she sat on her lap to help line up the knots and she had to pull the cords apart and brush the beard to make it look fluffy. (Cute.) She hung this in her Cape Cod-themed kitchen around the holidays for years. We are honored to have him in our kitchen now! (Don’t you think he’s a little bit gnome-ish?)

It’s difficult to express how happy this ornament makes me. My friend Martina gave it to me a few weeks ago:

smurf ornament

It should probably also be difficult to admit that The Smurfs were my favorite cartoon when I was a kid. But, in fact, it’s not: the Smurfs lived in MUSHROOM cottages, people! I shouldn’t have to justify myself further.

I’ve already shared the jaundice and replacement of our actual Christmas tree, but here’s our little disco tree:

disco tree

This was purchased by Rob four years ago – he used it to decorate his apartment in a super-magical way the night we got engaged at Rockefeller Center rink. I would be remiss to not mention here the Queen of Disco Christmas, Victoria Elizabeth Barnes – check out this blog – can you say sparkly?

I can’t claim to fashion anything near as elaborate as Victoria, but this year I did feel a bit clever when I hung some white star ornaments (Tarjay) from our dining room chandelier:

Star ornaments

I like how they look with the red berry twig things I try to get every year:

star ornaments red berries

And just because I’m not drinking wine at present doesn’t mean I can’t accessorize it, right? (I got these from the Sundance catalogue a few years ago.):

wine hat and scarf

Many of you know that for a while there, I made punctuation-themed ornaments for my friends and family. Then they stopped making/selling these exact frosted bulbs (or I couldn’t find them, anyway) so I discontinued. But here is the one that is displayed most prominently on our tree this year, as if to ask: When will our Christmas baby arrive? How will it all play out? What will he be like?

question mark ornament

This old-fashioned, polka dot skate from my friend Ann-Marie snazzes up our front entrance:

old fashioned skate

Speaking of our front entrance, I know I featured this last year, but I have to give a shout out to Rob Strati and his outdoor LED lighting installation fashioned around our pergola and culminating in a chandelier-ish centerpiece:

ornament chandelierornament chandelier pergola

Rob prefers that I do not refer to this “piece” as art, and I am trying to respect that. What I will do instead is brag that he has a fantastic solo art show in Brooklyn RIGHT NOW at Robert Henry Contemporary at 56 Bogart in Bushwick:

outlines Robert Strati

It is featuring his digital prints, wire sculptures (i.e. above) and a wonderful balloon installation. Check it out, or check out this link, anyway! He also has another show coming up in LA at Arena 1 in the Santa Monica Studios next month.

And finally, I leave you with an image of the very LAST pizzelle in the box:

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These crisp, light, anise-flavored waffle cookies have fueled all of the above and have become a bit of a joke around our house because the word is so fun to say. Most obviously, this word nicely combines one part pizza and one part gazelle, but if you draw out that second syllable in an extremely breathy, theatrical fashion, as in pizzellllllllllllllllle, I promise it’ll feel good.

Hope you are enjoying your holidays…Will keep you “posted”!

Here are some other holiday decorations I have been admiring from fellow bloggers…check them out:

Aluminum tree and chalkboard tree from A Goode House: here.

Up-cycled star wreath at Northstory: here.

Pear and Cherry Christmas Root at Scrap and Salvage: here.

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why oh why did our christmas tree turn yellow?

Posted on November 26, 2012 | 24 Comments

yellow christmas tree

It’s a tragedy. It’s a mystery. It’s a crying shame: Our artificial white Christmas tree turned an unfortunate shade of yellow. Of course, a white Christmas tree is meant to imply (okay maybe only half convincingly) that it is a green tree covered in a fresh dusting of pristine snow. But if it has suddenly become splotchy with yellow, what does that imply? Don’t answer that – I think we all know.

To our knowledge there are no animals to “leave their mark” in our basement where the tree has been stored for the last year. Our mistake: we didn’t cover it. But we didn’t cover it last year, and this didn’t happen. So I have been left to theorize. Readers of this blog know that I am terrified of our unfinished basement. No matter how many bare lightbulbs Rob has tried to rig up, it’s still dark. It’s cobwebby. It’s never been wet down there but, like many basements, it does have a bit of a dank-ish scent. Though the stairs are solid, they do have a creepy creek. This is all to say that I avoid the place as much as possible.

While I was ignoring the tree down there, thinking it was on deck and ready to make it’s third annual appearance in our living room, it was transforming into something…something straight-up unsightly and somewhat gross.

tree in basement

I’d posit that it’s a simple matter of dust build-up, but no amount of rubbing at the branches changes the situation. Clearly some kind of chemical reaction has occurred. Here are some hypotheses:

  • Did he get a suntan from the nearby window?
  • Overheated/burned by the furnace? (Which is not that nearby; we’re not complete idiots.)
  • Radon poisoning?
  • Jaundice?
  • Spider pee?
  • Coffee addiction? After all, the same thing is gradually happening to my formerly white teeth.
  • Spontaneous case of self-antiquing?

A quick internet search revealed that we are not alone. Sounds like it’s pretty common for white plastic to turn yellow and there is little you can do about it. Some suggest trying to scrub it with vinegar, others suggest spraying it with fake snow. Neither of those things were likely to happen at this point, so after this sad discovery we ordered another tree online, and got a cover for it. Granted, the concept of having a fake tree is an attempt to be a bit environmentally conscious – to keep one less tree (or thirty, over the years) from getting chopped down. I love the smell and the look of a real tree, but I also like the retro-vibe of white and colored ones. Of course, now we’ll unfortunately be putting one in a landfill. Feeling guilty about this. (But I’d also feel bad subjecting Santa to that yellowing mess, too. He shouldn’t have to look at that.)

The good news is that new tree has arrived, and it’s white as freshly, fallen snow. Rob set it all up and I did the trimming. There are few things I enjoy more than busting out the ornaments, and thinking about all the kind folks who have given them to us over the years.

white tree day

I love how the tree reflects off our picture window.

white tree reflection

And I especially love how it looks from the street, through the trees, as I drive home from work at night.

tree from street

With any luck (and I often am this lucky) the fire-place is a-blazing and a warm, delicious dinner is almost done. Cozy epitomized. Gotta love this time of year.

***

Do you have any theories why our tree turned yellow? Has this ever happened to you? Do you think the cover is going help? Please advise.

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diy: gettin’ twiggy with it

Posted on November 8, 2012 | 21 Comments

decorating with twigs

Super Storm Sandy: Check.

Power back on: Check (though it has flickered several times, in fact twice while I was trying to post this, and many in our area haven’t gotten it back AT ALL yet.)

Internet, Phone and TV Service finally restored: Check, check and check.

Price-gouged gas in the car, obtained by waiting in medium-long and tension-filled lines: Check.

Nasty Nor’Easter kicking up a lot more wind last night and a dumping of snow significant enough that Rob’s commute home took three hours and meant he couldn’t get up the moderate hill by our house: Check and check, plus sigh.

Lots of twigs and branches strewn all over the place making a mockery of our already-leaf filled yard (but feeling VERY thankful that no full trees came down on us this time – again, many of our neighbors were not so lucky): Check.

Just in case you suddenly find yourself with lots of twigs and branches laying around, I thought I’d share a twig-centric DIY project Rob and I did in our guest bath when we first moved in. (Of course, there are issues FAR more serious than fallen twigs here in the New York/New Jersey/Connecticut area, but we try to look on the lighter side here at the home tome…you know, lemons/lemonade, though of course that particular bev doesn’t exactly seem seasonal right now…)

Our house was built in 1965 and the bathrooms are still pretty much stuck in this era. Although the guest bath has a newish pedestal sink and a newish toilet, the tile work and bathtub are an old-school color that could best be described as…well, mushroom (And while I’d usually use this word as a compliment, that is not the case, here.)

Mushroom tiles and tub

Sure, we intend to update both this and our master bath when we can, but I suspect it will be a while. In the mean time, we were inspired by a branch-covered shower curtain we picked up at CB2 a few years ago: we wanted to give this bathroom a modern yet natural vibe and try to distract away from some of the more dated aspects.

cb2 branch shower curtain

Our property boasts lots of old trees, which means that even when a hurricane hasn’t swept through we have a surplus of fallen branches and twigs year round. I gathered together some handsome ones. Then I sprayed a light coating of craft enamel on them to prevent shedding over time, and to protect them from those steamy conditions.

I configured them the way I wanted then Rob attached them to the wall with short pieces of wire. He poked one end of the wire on one side of the twig and poked the other end on the other side, so that the wire acted almost like a round staple.

installing twigs

Next, we interspersed some sand dollars my mother in-law found on the beach at Cape Cod.

sand dollar

Finally, I added a few small mirrors I picked up from Target. These reflect the branches from the shower curtain across the room. And voila! Twiggy Guest Bath Installation. All for under $10.

Twiggy Guest Bath

Since then, I must confess that I have bravely foraged in our yard for other decorative reasons. I’ve made bouquets out of weeds and used fallen leaves for dining table centerpieces. I just hope I don’t get out of hand with this newfound practice: if, for example, you see me gathering grass clippings, please make sure I’m not planning on weaving a bathmat out of them, or something!

***

Hope any readers who were affected by Sandy are getting back to normal now or will soon. Times like these certainly remind us how fragile our infrastructure is and how important our friends are. Thank you to Sara, Kevin and Nora over at Shmooples for eggs-n-internet right after the storm. And all my best to Katie and Ira at Rock and Roll Yogi who literally had a gigantic tree fall on their kitchen and ON THEM while cooking what I am sure were some excellent brussel sprouts: May you come out of this nightmare with the kitchen of your dreams!

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what do your fall decorations say about you?

Posted on October 29, 2012 | 23 Comments

scarecrow

Halloween is upon us – and Thanksgiving will be close behind. Surely you’ve already busted out your favorite fall decorations and decked out your house with kooky, scary, or tasteful autumnal flair. But, as with all seasonal decorations, I think it’s important to consider what these items say about you.  After all, like a flag or a political sign, whatever you place on your lawn, front porch, or on your dining room table gives a definite impression.

For example, though we don’t have one (yet), one of my all-time favorite fall decorations is that “witch who ran into the tree.” I’m sure you’ve seen her – she comes complete with striped socks and a broom. Attaching this whimsical decoration to one of the trees on your property not only indicates that you have a sense of humor, it might reveal your inner klutz. Maybe you can relate to her haphazard flying skills and you secretly wish people would be a little more forgiving when you accidentally bump into their shopping carts in the supermarket…or their cars in the parking lot.

The message behind some of the most common decorations is obvious. If you put out a cardboard black cat, you’re admitting that you’re not superstitious and that you also adore cats, even if everyone else in your family is allergic.

Scarecrows, like the extra-happy one pictured above, signify a yearning for simpler times, when more people really did wear overalls to work, and when crows really were one of the biggest threats to crops.

I used to think that putting out fake pumpkins or jack-o-lanterns was a cop-out but I have had a change of heart. I’ve realized that while I happen to love a good pumpkin soup and some toasted pumpkin seeds, not everyone wants to get so up-close and personal with pumpkin goop. And that really is everyone’s right. But here’s the other thing: I think people who put out those rubbery pumpkins are actually demonstrating a great deal of respect for their neighbors. Because when marauding teens inevitably come around to squash the squash, these will not create a splattering, rotting mess. In fact, once the teens realize that they bounce, they may actually abandon their mischievous ways and re-channel their energies into a nice, healthy pick-up game of basketball.

bendy skeleton

Who doesn’t love skeletons? We have a little bendy one who shows up in all kinds of locations around our house, but most people have those cardboard versions that fit so perfectly on the front door. If you get a good version, many of his joints are mobile, so you can place his arms and legs akimbo in a good dancing position. What you’re telling the world with this one, though, is surprisingly complicated: 1) You are not afraid of death. 2) You are fascinated by human anatomy, and, 3) You’re upset that you put on those extra ten pounds this summer and, though you have no interest in being quite this skinny, you’re on the market for any daily inspiration you can get.

I think the least convincing fall decoration of all time is the fake cobwebs. The message here is obvious: you are able to fool yourself easily. Let’s face it, that stringy, cottony substance draped in clumps across your hedges looks about as much like cobwebs as that carrot cake you ate for dinner last night looks like carrots. (By the way, see number 3, above.)

And finally, one of the most difficult decorations to interpret is the black caldron filled with dry ice. This might say that you are very in touch with your inner-child and love Halloween more than any other holiday. OR it serves as a “gone fishing” type sign, except instead of fishing, you’ve gone out to obtain three frog eyeballs, two hairs from a troll’s beard, and some gravestone shavings for your deadly brew.

Hey, I don’t want to make too many assumptions here, but this fall, you might just want pay attention to the message you’re sending to the neighborhood.

***

For those of you bracing yourself for (or enduring) Frankenstorm Sandy here on the east coast (the wind is building here in Nyack, NY), I urge you to consult the “How to Prepare for a Hurricane” section in Chapter 5 of my book The Homeowner’s Guide to Greatness for some “extremely helpful” coping mechanisms.

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