TinyLady's Profile

The Vers Audio clock is great, but the website says it's not available and I can't find it anywhere else on the internet. It is discontinued? Does anyone know where I could find something comparable?

We have one in the bedroom that we mainly only use now and then on weekend mornings. He watches football, I read, and we can snuggle up together in bed for an hour or two. I love that time we spend together before we head out to our computers to work. It's also handy when I have friends over in the living room and there's some can't-miss sporting event he needs to watch (seeing any patterns here?).
I actually find the internet to be way more of a time-sucking brain drain than TV, but maybe I just have better self-control with the TV.

@katillathehun I've been using the Devachan No-Poo for several years and my (naturally curly) hair is not oily or greasy at all. I'm a complete convert to the Devachan system. I get compliments on my hair all the time, it is quicker to style and is no longer the bane of my existence.

Devachan is big on the difference between "shampooing" and "cleansing." You can cleanse your hair and scalp without the harsh ingredients in your basic shampoo. Whatever the lathering agent is in shampoo is really damaging to your hair and the lather doesn't do anything you couldn't do with your fingers and a vigorous scrubbing. Honestly, I don't see what's "gross" or "dirty" about not wanting to damage your hair and scalp with harsh chemicals that don't actually have any benefit. It's not like I'm not showering or cleaning myself/my hair.

Yeah, an 850sf house for a family of four (or more) in Austin is much different than a 850sf loft for a bachelor in NYC. I'm sure the editors of AT can weed out those who are truly "living small" in 850sf from those who are not. Large families in small homes have their own design challenges to deal with (tiny bedrooms, lack of storage space, etc.) and I look forward to seeing the creative solutions to those problems. I don't think this is a question of AT abandoning its roots. It's simply evolving and becoming a little less NYC-centric, and more inclusive of how families in other parts of the country live in their own small spaces.

I'm only imagining that the piece TB has drawn is similar to the look/function of a Trading Spaces piece, not that a Trading Spaces piece is similar to what a cabinetmaker would create if given time/budget to create something fantastic. And I'm *definitely* not imagining that anything I built is anywhere near as good as a professional woodworker would have made. I have a vivid imagination, but I ain't crazy! In that "woodworker as heart surgeon" metaphor, I'm the lady who took a CPR class in 8th grade.

I read "apartment" as "not permanent." I'm an apartment dweller and I don't care how nice and well-crafted it is, if I can't take it with me, I would not spend $7000 on some shelves/cabinets. Especially when I could build something (less durable, less custom, no amazing finishes, MUCH shittier! etc.) to suit the same function for 1/20th that. That's me reading into the question a bit, but TB's question wasn't "why is this quote not insane for a quality, handcrafted piece that will be left standing after the apocalypse and will give me a rush of pleasure each time I gaze upon it?" It was "how can I do this more cheaply to get some more storage?" So I don't think highest quality is his/her top consideration either.

I built my own bookshelves and though the project was slightly less complicated, structure-wise, than yours, I ended up with 48 linear feet of pine shelving. I'm not sure how pine would compare price-wise with MDF or plywood for this particular application, but the total cost for my wood was somewhere between 50-100 bucks and the total labor was about two days (which included staining the wood). It probably would have been less labor if I had any idea what I was doing before I started. So $7000 sounds nutz to me too. I understand paying good money for a well-crafted, time-consuming piece, but your proposed idea looks like something they'd slap together in an afternoon on Trading Spaces (in fact, I'm almost positive I've seen nearly identical pieces done on Trading Spaces). I don't mean that as a dig, just that it looks relatively straightforward and like it doesn't require very fancy materials. Maybe you should try to figure out how to build it yourself. Making a bookshelf is not the hardest thing in the world, especially if you don't care about it being totally perfect.

It's not tatting. It's crochet.

Hmmm... this is really a neat idea, but it looks very sloppily and unevenly knit. Is that just the pic, or is that how it is? Love the concept, not sure about the execution in this case.

I think maybe one of the reasons people are wary of entering is because last year's commenters were so ... blunt-bordering-on-mean. People who feel like their apartments are still works-in-progress don't want to enter this year because they don't want to get ripped to shreds by the sharks.

I really hope the new commenting system takes that element out of the contest. I think it would be so much better if Small 'n' Cool were more about celebrating individual style and creativity than about having a catalog-worthy apartment.