pyewacket's Profile

Display Name: pyewacket
Member Since: 8/14/07

Latest Comments...

Gray is too trendy? My favorite room ever was gray, and I painted that a decade ago. How could something so neutral be anything but classic?


Color Ideas for Huge, Vaulted Bedroom? Good Questions
6/11/13 11:21 AM

I've had to organize by fit, but then again, I've had two kids in three years. My weight has gone up-and-down, up-and-down. I wouldn't think most people would need to dot hat most of the time.


Would You Organize Your Closet By Size?
6/11/13 10:36 AM

If I had that room, I would use it as an excuse to buy or build a big old canopy bed - the old-school kind, with curtains. Then the light would stream in from all the windows and I could awake behind my heavy velvet draperies and groggily reach my hand up to pull the curtains back an inch, letting a finger of light fall across the pillow. I would then grab the bellpull and have my servant bring me coffee immediately.

I would also paint the room a lovely soft light gray, with a darker gray ceiling and white moldings.


Color Ideas for Huge, Vaulted Bedroom? Good Questions
6/11/13 8:42 AM

I don't really understand why people say carpet feels nice underfoot. Maybe I have some sort of sensory issue, but the feel of most carpet is unpleasant to me. I also have bad allergies, and wall-to-wall is brutal on them. I do understand that it's warmer.

Love the animal parts, but then again, my idea of a perfect home would look a lot like a natural history museum, and I've been collecting bones a loooooong time. Fake plants aren't my thing, but some of them are so realistic you can't tell, so why not? Some wood - pine, for example, which is soft and cheap - is supposed to be painted, at least traditionally. Would I paint tiger maple or mahogany or cherry? No. But a lot of stuff gets painted for good reason. Reproductions aren't really my thing either, but not a big deal.


Five Controversial Decor Items (And Why You May Want Them)
6/10/13 8:46 AM

Actually, according to the book Stuff, hoarders generally believe that they "know where everything is," but it's not actually true. They just feel that it's true. It's worth considering that your perception might be off here. My husband tends to get frustrated if I put something away if it's not where he thought it should be, but he also spends an enormous amount of time searching for the things he put down any old place. He's ADD, and I am, too, but I'm much milder than he is and I worked hard to force myself to get more organized. Unfortunately, that means it's twice as hard to be in a chaotic space. A lot of training myself to be more organized was training myself to be more present - thinking through small things like where I'm dropping my keys instead of just dropping them. My husband will drop something in a spot where it's likely to get covered or broken and I'll point that out, and his response is that he's just getting it out of the way - it's not meant to be a permanent spot, he's not thinking about other issues. But that to me is the point. Taking on organization is taking on the business of thinking outside the moment. I'll never be a person with perfectly organized files, but I've at least moved beyond losing my keys and wallet regularly and not being able to find the clean clothes mixed in with the dirty ones.


The Messy Myth: Is Being Organized Really Always Best?
6/7/13 9:03 AM

I've had fried grasshopper. It wasn't bad at all. Not nearly so crunchy as you might expect.


The U.N. Says We Should Eat More Bugs Food News
5/28/13 1:22 PM

Absolutely fantastic. Everything looks beautiful and personally meaningful and just lovely.

I have those Ikea chairs, and I love them as back-ups, particularly because they're really cheap - but they're pretty uncomfortable. That's the only negative thing I have to say about the whole house!


Meg & Andy's Radical Possibilities House Tour
5/14/13 11:00 AM

Those decks look right to me - I hate high decks for the reason mentioned above. I want to be IN my yard, not looking down on it from above.


Low Wooden Decks: Yea or Nay?
4/29/13 3:44 PM

I like to gather material together on themes that interest me as larger subjects - photographs of heirloom vegetables and fruits or old photographs of food workers. I follow some people who pin interesting things from historical graphic design and typography. But there's an awful lot of bad recipes (why are there so many recipes that call for candies?) and shopping wishlists. I find it hard to dig through and find the stuff that excites me.


What Kind of Pinner Are You? 6 Types of Pinterest Users
4/29/13 3:30 PM

the blue thing is called a zipline, and they're a ton of fun!

Somewhere there's a picture of me at about age 4 in the "treehouse" in my grandparents big old apple tree. I know my father reaching up could just about grab me if I slid into his arms, so maybe 8 feet off the ground? It was four or five planks just nailed into the tree across two branches. I had climbed up on that particular occasion in shiny black Maryjanes and a frilly blue dress. Never fell, and I was the clumsiest kid imaginable.

Really, skip the railing.


How To Make a Simple Tree House Apartment Therapy Tutorials
3/26/13 8:28 AM

I like the black color of the shutters, but shutters scaled too small to actually close is a pet peeve.


Before & After: Bare Backyard Turned Lush Patio
3/25/13 10:34 AM

New York? Huh?

But I will say, Poughkeepsie is depressing. I used to live near there. An IBM facility had laid off something like 11,000 workers. There was this huge parking lot with four or five cars in it. Then the residential areas were just full of boarded-up houses. Lovely old buildings were falling to rot. Very sad.


Top 20 Most Miserable Cities in America Forbes
3/14/13 11:31 AM

If you don't know the neighborhoods, find a beat cop and ask. He'll tell you far more than a real estate agent.

Also, remember that research has consistently shown that people tend to overestimate the effect of lots of space on their quality of life and underestimate the effect of commute length. Shorter commute=happier person, most of the time, even if they don't think it matters that much. Since commute time for space is a common tradeoff, it's worth remembering to load the value of a short commute a little more than seems warranted.


10 Tips for Knowing When to Walk Away from the \"Perfect\" Place Renters Solutions
3/8/13 3:16 PM

Another advantage to planting natives is that they actually work with the local ecosystem. You can provide local bugs, birds, butterflies, etc. with the plants they need. Two good books to check out - Michael Pollan's early book about gardening Second Nature and a book called Noah's Garden, both of which talk about the constant tension between gardening and letting go, using natives and making vegetable gardens, etc. I like very much the approach Pollan ultimately took, planting vegetables, herbs and some beloved ornamentals (non-invasive) closest to his house, then transitioning into all native plants until the garden disappeared into the woods.


Why Grow That, When You Can Grow This? The Gardenist
3/7/13 2:27 PM

Lovely apartment.

I wear shoes at home all the time. I have lousy feet, and they hurt without shoes. Admittedly, I'm usually wearing something flat, not leopard-skin heels, but then again, I am not quite that FABULOUS. I wish I were.


Mary Lee's Life in 300 Square Feet House Tour
3/7/13 9:40 AM

That certainly sounds very sweet. Very, very sweet.


The Perfect Cocktail for Your Cuties:
The Clementine Cocktail The 10-Minute Happy Hour

3/1/13 12:57 PM

There's only one thing that could make this better - bigger drawers!


Playset Drawer Shelves He Adopted Me First
3/1/13 8:44 AM

I had this for my wedding cake, which was of course pie. I served a pie buffet with many kinds of pie at my wedding, and for bride/groom "cake" cutting, we used this, which was served at every Christmas and Thanksgiving dinner when I was growing up. Yes, it's still delicious.


Classic Dessert Recipe: French Silk Pie Recipes from The Kitchn
2/4/13 1:31 PM

I have no idea why a canning funnel would be dorky.


My Kitchen Treat: An Admittedly Dorky Canning Funnel
1/29/13 1:34 PM

The whales are dancing. Or levitating with joy.


Before & After: Drab Armoire Gets a Whimsical New Face
1/29/13 10:59 AM