mudrick's Profile

I have the Martha Stewart dutch ovens in two different sizes (7 qt. and 5.5 qt) and have been VERY happy with them. Macy's has them on sale right now and is also offering a free shipping promotion.

I doubt there is much difference in the quality compared to Le Cruset but the price difference is substantial.

These look like the La Fitte pendant by Jamie Young. Ballard Designs carries a similar style them.

She cleaned with muriatic acid first and then sealed it with Tile Grout Coating. There's a pic of the bottle in her Flickr stream.

You could paint the backs blue and then put stacks of white dishes inside. If you don't want to paint you could tack up some colored paper or fabric with doublesided tape.

Sarah,
I vote for painted white or upholstered chairs. I'd avoid anything matching. You might want to check out designer Windsor Smith's dining room for inspiration. She paired white painted chairs with dark leather seats and an upholstered bench with her large dark table. There's a pic on her site at -- http://www.windsorsmithhome.com/Portfolio/88 -- and you can see a video of her home (and dining room) on the domino Web site here -- http://www.dominomag.com/howtos/advice/video/2007/07/windsorsmith -- She does a good job of mixing a glam feel with other elements. Good luck, it's a lovely table!

Sparrow in silver please!

Milk and caramel...yum!

My design blog addiction is now taking the place of my shelter magazine addiction. Why wait a whole month for the next print issue when I can have new, inspiring images on a daily basis for free? For years, I've kept a file of tear sheets from magazines that I steadily added to, but now I have a Flickr account that I use to capture Web images instead and I really think twice before ripping something out of a print piece to add to my paper clutter. Sometimes, I'm even motivated to see if I can find an image I really love on the Internet instead. I've also been reading the new digital editions of a couple magazines and saving digital clippings to Flickr. I always knew that print magazines were mostly advertising but now that I can look at thumbnails of all the pages in a digital magazine at once, I really get a sense of how little content is there. I still love Domino and will subscribe to their print edition (but wish they would get a digital one up and running and archive all the past issues). Maybe magazines will turn to some of the tactics newspapers are using to retain print readers. I've heard of some newspapers giving lapsed subscribers the paper for free so they can maintain the readership level they need to attract advertisers.

Forgot to mention that some magazines are offering digital subscriptions which are great. I just subscribed to Canadian House & Home and am liking the online experience. I'm finding myself reading more and more design blogs and am using Flickr to save and organize photos that are inspiring.

I've followed his review of CF lightbulbs but would love to know if there are any green non-hideous chandelier bulbs out there.