Steph82's Profile

Definitely Mo Willems' Pigeon books! Although I think they're even more amusing to me as an adult than they would have been when I was a kid, joining the ranks of "Fraggle Rock" and "The Adventures of Pete and Pete" as things meant for kids that I appreciate infinitely more as a grown-up.

I also really like "A House for Hermit Crab" by Eric Carle.

Oh, and this one is mean for slightly older children (ages 7 and up, according to Amazon), but "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane" by Kate DiCamillo was amaaaazing. I read it for a children's lit class when I was in grad school, and I kid you not, this book had me SOBBING.

That depends entirely on which bookcase and which room. The living room bookcase is mostly classics (Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, etc.). Cookbooks on the top shelf on the baker's rack in the kitchen. The den/library has one shelf with biography, drama and nonfiction, a bookcase with chick lit on the top shelf, mystery novels and sci-fi in the middle and children's books on the bottom, and another that is a catch-all for general fiction, with autographed books. The autographed books are a really random assortment of genres - a first edition of Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow that was a wedding gift from my bridesmaids, a signed copy of The Pigeon Wants a Puppy by Mo Willems that was a Valentine's Day gift from my husband, and copies of The Pluto Files and Awakenings, from when I met Neil deGrasse Tyson and Oliver Sacks, respectively.

So I guess my bookcases say I am well-rounded, and clearly a librarian by profession, since they are organized by genre and alphabetical by author. If I had enough non-fiction to justify doing so, I'd probably assign Dewey numbers as well. :-P

I agree with the earlier commenter who appreciated that none of these libraries have books arranged by color. I like to go back and re-read old favorites, and I lend out books fairly frequently, so for me by genre and alphabetical by author (or subject if it's a biography) is the way to go. If I had to pick favorites here, I think I'd say photos 1,3,6 and 10 are my favorites. I think libraries should be warm, cozy places, and those are the ones that would make me want to curl up with a book the most. :-)

And despite the fact that the den is a dedicated library/music room, there's still quite a bit of spill-over into other rooms. My husband teases me because we have bookcases in nearly every room of the house, but that's what he gets for marrying a librarian! ;-)

@becster.henrich - I loooove Noritake Colorwave! Our everyday china is Colorwave in graphite. I love the floral accent plates from that line, they're so pretty. :-) They are a bit pricy (if I recall correctly, the Colorwave place settings cost more than our fine china!), but they've held up so well, they can really take a beating!

Like AnnaBe, I haven't noticed this trend at my local farmers' market. I live in northwestern NJ, and I find that most of the produce at my farmers' market is about the same price, often even cheaper than, the produce at the grocery store. Once in a great while something will be a bit more expensive.

The only thing I see a big difference with is the meat, but not when it comes from the same vendor - it's the difference between a small local farm versus a large factory farm. In which case, I decided I'd rather spend more money on the former, even if it means eating less meat overall.

I absolutely LOVE my Ktichen Aid mixer. I still need to invest in some of the attachments, though.

And they aren't quite big enough to use as salad bowls, but I got some hand-me-down teak serving bowls from my mother's friend a few years ago, and they are absolutely beautiful!

I'd miss the formal dining room! My house technically has an eat-in kitchen, but instead of putting in a big table we bought a stainless steel utility table and a couple of matching stools, so it serves as a breakfast bar, and also as extra counter space.

We don't even have kids yet, but when it's cooler out we often make it a point to sit in the formal dining room for dinner even if it's just the two of us (we have an enormous front porch, so when it's warm out we eat a lot of meals out there). But our dining room is a pretty fantastic space, it's attached to the den, which has built-in bookcases, comfy recliners, and our piano (and guitars, accordian, clarinet and saxophone!), so the dining room/den area has become the area where people automatically congregate, due to both the size and feel of those rooms.

Oh, also: I don't like the whole moving tvs into the bedroom thing. We have one tv, it's in the living room. Once in a great while we watch a movie on the laptop in the bedroom, but for the most part it's a media-free zone.

So I guess I'm a bit of a curmudgeon despite the fact that I'm only in my 20s. ;-) But I do like the smaller home thing. Ours is 1400 square feet and it's the perfect size. Enough space, but not so much that we start accumulating tons of useless crap.

No, not now! But when my husband and I moved into our first place, a one-bedroom apartment with the only AC unit in the living room, we spent many a summer night on the couches because the bedroom was just too darn hot.

No central air in our house now, but our bedroom is on the north side of the house and naturally stays pretty cool, and we finally have an window AC unit for when it gets really hot out.

I use coupons sometimes, but mostly for non-food groceries, like cleaning supplies, tissues, etc. I'm pretty sure the only food we consistently use coupons on is cereal. But during the warmer months we get a lot of our food at the local farmers' market, where coupons are useless to us.

Honestly? I'd rather spend a little bit more money buying fresh, healthy food and find ways to cut costs elsewhere.

When I first moved into my house 2 years ago, my aunt sent me a couple of African violets. I regularly forget to water them, but they're still going strong! So I'd add them to the list as well. :-)