Blue_Eyed_Snack's Profile

Would love to know the color paint in the living room and the beamed ceiling.

World Market has a lot of these jars in different sizes if you're looking for matching sets. You can also hit flea markets and thrift shops, since they're glass, and a scrub with salt and once through the dishwasher will do it. They cost next to nothing used.

Most of the time, you can get replacement rubber gaskets in hardware stores or where they sell canning supplies. Ace Hardware usually has them.

FYI, it doesn't take months or years to deplete the vitamins from sunlight. Milk in an opaque paper carton can actually go longer without spoiling, and nobody stores milk for 6 months. I don't know of anybody who's going through 5 lbs of lentils or a bottle of turmeric in a couple weeks, unless you're eating the same thing every day.

If you want to eat this way, check out some sites about safe long term dry food storage. Insect eggs can come in the flour, dry beans and grains you buy, and can contaminate everything if you don't prepare food for storage properly.

Sorry if I'm a bummer, but people used to know this stuff, when everybody ate this way. Now that we all have prepared foods and store everything in the fridge, we don't. Mormons have a web site about long term food storage, as well as many others. Not a Mormon myself, but they know how it's done.

I agree, the pantry is gorgeous, but when I tried to do this myself, and found out about the storage issues, I just couldn't justify spoiling the nutritional value of food for the looks.

I like the plaid couch. Plaid goes with a lot of things, and the accessories can easily be changed.

Our last couch was boring, plain denim, but we covered the four large, matching loose back pillows as the mood struck us - everything from kitcshy Western prints, to 1960's tie dye, to retro/modern geometric prints depending on the mood and seasons. That was fun and changed the whole room. It's less drastic than a whole patterned couch since you can change it. You could also do a lot with a plaid or a geometric design if you picked carefully.

The new couch we have is much more tasteful, solid color and boring. I'm kind of sorry we didn't get a print or something brighter now. Too much good taste can be too much.

Display them wearing cement overshoes in the Hudson River?

Seriously, since these dolls are all from a certain era, I would consider not more than five, as a three dimensional grouping, not just a shelf lined up like soldiers. Think department store window display.

1: De-creepify by adding context: use a series of enlarged copies of colorful illustrations from childrens' books of the era, like "Dick and Jane," as a colorful background. Perhaps grouping with other childrens toys of the era (without glassy eyes) like hanging game boards, blocks, paper doll clothes, toy childrens' dishware, whatever. Make it a natural, organic display, not rows of "evil eyes" glaring at you. Don't have every doll's face pointing directly at the viewer. Some in profile, or various positions, near blocks, jacks, & other similar era toys would make sense to the viewer and add charm. A colorful illustrated background de-intensfies the dolls themselves.

2: Display them among photos or illustrations, of the same era, as if they are a museum display, so the viewer can understand context. For example, photos of little girls of the era, playing with dolls, or cooking with mommy, or doll or other toy advertisements from the era.

3: If you wanted to go the opposite way, and "de-cutsey-fy" them, then suspend every doll an equal distance apart on one wall, by the waist, in a grid pattern, so they are hanging as individual works of art, at varying heights, on a white wall, with some space around each one. Think museum display of a collection, same as any other collection. This would encourage the viewer to look at each doll as an individual object, not a mass. If you do this, one wall only, please, not the whole house!

I live in Las Vegas and know what they're up against. All the homeowners' associations here demand that you have blinds, not curtains, and you have no choice. I get around that myself by having cheap horizontal blinds everywhere I can, then hang drapes over the top.

I know every thrift shop and antique shop they mention. If you like vintage, prices here are much higher than other parts of the country and there is much less selection. I'd recommend Broadacres Swap meet (I've gotten some great vintage stuff there for less than half what you'd pay at Red Rooster, although I love browsing there), and Craigslist.

The kitchen is the same usual boring kitchen everyone has here. They are all virtually identical except for size. I painted mine bright mustard and burnt orange. Makes a big difference.

All the houses here are cookie cutter houses, interiors painted white, oak cabs, white tile or beige carpet and you really have to personalize them with paint, etc. Otherwise they look like motels. There are very few houses 20 years old and they are mostly in lousy neighborhoods on the wrong side of town. They are really fighting a bland house and power-crazy homeowners' associations that won't let you do anything, so all in all, kudos to them. Paint some more colors, guys!

Who are the people who made these and thought they'd be great? And why?

I'd be worried that one day the cat would decide it's too much work to climb up there to go to the bathroom.

As it is, I have two cats who think it's too much work to keep their bottom inside the litter box when they go. One of our litter boxes is grotesquely ugly, putty colored, and the size of a small house as a result. Doesn't help. Still sand everywhere. Another has a house around it that I built. They go to the bathroom with their fat bottoms out the house window.

Somebody needs to invent a designer cat that will go to the bathroom neatly.

Also, put a row of bookcases on the wall you share with the kitchen. Books are good insulators.

This might be a good idea for wrapping hard-to-wrap gifts such as large stuffed animals. Otherwise, I'd feel too guilty for wasting the money.

As far as "impressing the neighbors" is concerned, they'd probably think you were saying "look at me, I have way too much money."