kdelap's Profile

We have had the Nest for a couple months now and I don't believe it is much (if at all) better than our previous 7-day Honeywell programmable thermostat. Nest does not "learn" near as well as it is advertised to. In fact, it learned less sessions or timeframes than we had with the previous. Also, if it senses that someone is home, it turns up the heat, even if you don't want it to (for example, if I stop in during the day for a few hours, or if my husband works from home but likes a chillier house). I think we might be spending more money on heat with it, though it is hard to compare with different months.
I do like it in theory, but in practice, it isn't the miracle solution that they advertise it for. If you already have a programmable and keep your house on the cool side, this isn't going to save you enough money to make up for the purchase price, in my opinion.

Can you tell us about that rug? Really fantastic contrast item for a nursery! Great space in general!

Thanks for all the compliments!

We bought the rocking chair kit through Shaker Workshops: http://shakerworkshops.com/

My grandma isn't so tech-saavy, so I went a little more lo-fi for my gift for her last year. I bought a stack of notecards and sent her one to open on Christmas that said "this is one of 12!" And then on the first of each month sent her another card with all the big (and little) news that happened in my month. Everytime I see her she comments about how much she loves the notes and to please keep them up. And who doesn't like getting mail?

For those interested in the fiber discussion, here is some information regarding polyester and cotton in children's clothing and pajamas:
http://www.essortment.com/family/flameresistant_sknw.htm

wow, and gorgeous packaging.

we've totally ruined our vaccuum with construction/renovation dirt - would love to have this. thanks for the opportunity, renest!

I saw something similar a couple years ago at the National Building Museum's Green House exhibit. I recreated it, just using baltic birch plywood for a box and regular bbq bamboo skewers. It works really well, though you need many more skewers than you'd imagine to keep the knives tight at the top. It makes sense that it wouldn't dull them because they aren't rubbing against the wood as they are in a traditional block, though a magnetic strip would serve the same purpose. I just made it because I liked the design, and haven't had any problems with the durability of the skewers.

We did this past winter in our Chicago apartment as well, except we were using it as a second layer of insulation instead of a window treatment. We think it worked pretty well in conjunction with our usual shrink-wrap plastic covers.