slarmstead's Profile

Could you please tell me where you got that beautiful rug? I love your whole room!

I live in a ridiculously small town and I know all my neighbors, to some degree or another. I could probably borrow a cup of sugar from any of them, but I certainly wouldn't want to. I like the ones I like and don't mind if their grass gets long and, as for the one I don't, I'm tempted to turn her in whenever her lawn needs mowing. I won't, but I'd love to! Many days I long for the anonymity of a city or the privacy of a farm.

I have an open backyard with several young trees that I've planted (sycamores, hazelnuts, cherries), one mature locust tree, a vegetable garden and some fruit bushes. It has lots of great parts but I feel exposed back there. If you would write about relatively quick and easy ways of creating "rooms" and adding shaping/screening through plants or architectural features, that would be really awesome. Thanks! I'm excited about your column!

I saw these in a restaurant last weekend. They don't seem any different in that context from the paper towels the restaurant would have supplied otherwise.

A very useful alternative to bleach is borax, which is a powder you can find in the laundry aisle at the grocery store. It kills mold without being harmful to you (unless you get it in your eyes). We have used it to clean up our moldy house, which was making my husband sick, and it seems to have helped. Hand in hand with the clean-up, though, must come ventilation or else the problem will recur.

Crafty heaven! I would love this.

I would love to have a food processor. Dreaming of fresh hummus and pesto...