I like this little birdhouse by designer Dave Vissat at Uncommon Goods. He “stumbled upon this idea when he was making a birdhouse for his mother. He ran out of wood, so he resorted to using an old book as a roof. Then he began incorporating interesting text and illustrations as well.” It isn’t weather proof, but it’s still a pretty cute idea. Kinda pricey at $120, though. (Via)

Design Sponge has a couple of great before and afters right now, including this transformation of an ottoman. It’s dramatic because it’s hard to see past the flat-out ugliness of this ottoman to the cool, stripped-down coffee table underneath. Ginger & Gold has more shots of the finished product.

Last year, my mom took me to the Ecke Poinsettia farm, the largest production of poinsettias in the country. I had never really cared about the plant until I saw a huge greenhouse filled with the most beautiful varieties of poinsettias. They can be white or pink, their leaves can look like red roses, they can look like they are splashed with paint… I bought one with leaves that looked like a court jester hat. It kept its leaves until April.

Poinsettias are from Mexico. According to Wikipedia, the plant’s association with Christmas “began in 16th century Mexico, where legend tells of a young girl who was too poor to provide a gift for the celebration of Jesus’ birthday. The tale goes that the child was inspired by an angel to gather weeds from the roadside and place them in front of the church altar. Crimson “blossoms” sprouted from the weeds and became beautiful poinsettias. From the 17th century, Franciscan friars in Mexico included the plants in their Christmas celebrations.” A Mexican ambassador introduced the plant into the U.S. in 1928.

Poinsettias have a lot of misconceptions. One is that the red are their flowers–it’s not true. The red “flowers” are really leaves that turn red. The tiny yellow buds you see are the poinsettia’s actual flower. Another misconception is that they are deadly poison. It turns out this is an urban legend–they are not good to eat, but they won’t kill you.

A third misconception is that you have to throw them out when they lost their leaves sometime between January and April. This, I’m told, is also not true. Poinsettias can be saved and re-used the next year. It just takes a little care. Here’s my understanding of how to do it:

1. While the plant is blooming, fertilize and water regularly. Poinsettias like a lot of water, so water whenever the soil gets dry to the touch. Keep the plant in a sunny place.

2. In April or May, cut the plant down to about 3-5 inches. Keep it watered. New growth should start to appear. You will want to prune the plant to give it the desired shape, otherwise it will look mangy come Christmastime.

3. In September, the plant needs a “short day” to produce flowers. That means providing it with darkness from 5 p.m.-8 a.m. So stick the poinsettia in a closet or put a box over it at night. In the day, continue to give it light. You will have to keep this up until the leaves start to turn red, about two months. (I’m a little confused on this point–other care guides said to just leave the poinsettia in the closet for two months, but I’m a little suspicious of this. Either way, it’s clear the plant needs darkness to produce.)

A little labor-intensive, yes, but definitely a frugal way to keep a plant.

Before

After

The guest bathroom in my house was a mess. The toilet was old, the medicine cabinet was too big for the space, the linoleum was ancient and gross, there was old wallpaper on the wall, and cardboard “wood paneling,” much of which I tried to remove when I first moved in.

To remodel, we decided to go with white tile because the adjoining bedroom has a white wainscot on the walls. From there, we started searching around for a decorative border, which wasn’t easy to find. It turns out that decorative tiles are very expensive! Finally, we found a decorative tile that was being closed out and got a great deal on it. Once we got the border, we decided on white subway tile and a topper that imitated the wainscot look in the guest room. We found a pedestal sink we liked and a new toilet. We were ready to remodel the guest bathroom.

Close up of the tile

It was a stressful job. First we demoed, which required taking the toilet, sink, medicine cabinet, and fake wood paneling out. Then I had to remove all the wallpaper. It turned out that underneath the wood paneling was lumpy tile glue, so we had to sheetrock half the wall to get a smooth surface. Next the linoleum came out. There turned out to be some rot in the subfloor that had to be repaired. Then, because we had bought a pedestal sink, we had to move the the plumbing over so it wouldn’t show from behind the sink. (My dad totally helped with all of this–I couldn’t have done it myself.)

After that, we tiled, which was an ordeal in and of itself. I did most of the grouting, which was tedious. After sealing the tile, we installed the sink, the toilet, and the new light fixture. I painted the walls. We bought a medicine cabinet. It was starting to look like a bathroom again.

The guest bath cost about $200 more than I expected, mostly because of small things like extra grout or or a tool to pry up the linoleum, etc. It gave me a hearty taste of how difficult the big bathroom is going to be, but it’s also nice to have a real bathroom again:

Before

After

Home by Sunset reminded me what I originally planned to do with my 2008 calendar: frame the best pictures and hang them as art. Unfortunately I already filled my walls with other art, but I still think it’s a great use for an old calendar. Although Sunset used $20 frames from Pottery Barn, you can easily find frames for much cheaper than that–especially if you go to thrift stores.

Here’s a clever way to hide you house key from Zakka Life. Get a bottle and glue a rock to it. The blog recommends e6000 glue because it’s strong and water resistant. Put the key inside the bottle, dig a hole, and stick the bottle in the ground. Your house key is not hiding under an innocuous rock:

I like it!

For the last few months I’ve been keeping a Price Book of everything I buy. It’s just a notebook that I write in. For each purchase, I list what I bought, where I bought it, the quantity broken down into ounces (preferably), and how much it costs. Then, I break that cost of the item further down to price per item and price per ounce.

So, a sample entry goes:

Item: Diet Pepsi (36 pack of cans)

Price Per Ounce: ($8.99 / 432) $.02 per oz

By doing this, I’m creating a database of my purchases. As any accountant or analyst can tell you, data is a valuable thing. By breaking each purchase down to the smallest component I can, I am comparing apples to apples as much as possible so I can more efficiently direct future purchases.

So, the Price Book lets me:

A. Compare the different prices I pay for the same item. Diet Pepsi, for example, ranges from $.02-$.12 per oz. That is a ten cent difference for the same thing. Once you start recognizing differences like that, you begin to see how often you’re overpaying for an item.

B. Realize where the best deals are. In this case, I’ve determined that the best deal for Diet Pepsi in my area is to either buy a two-liter on sale or to buy a 36-pack of cans at Costco. So, I know that when I am at Costco, I should always buy a 36-pack of Diet Pepsi and I will be saving money (as long as the price stays the same, that is). This simplifies my shopping in the long run.

C. See what food really costs. Breaking the price down by ounce has shown me what food is the most expensive overall. I had no idea I was paying almost $1 per ounce for coffee, and switched to a cheaper brand. I learned that items I thought were good deals were really rather high. For instance, I thought buying Tuna Helper for my husband at $1 a box was a good price, but it ends up being $.27 per ounce. Making tuna helper from scratch costs $.12 per ounce, a fifteen cent savings per ounce, and a considerable savings overall.

D. Determine the cheapest food. I found out that flour is one of the cheapest things I buy, so I started baking more. I plan to eventually go through and list the cheapest food and start using them more in my cooking. You can’t help but save money that way.

E. Look at what I really buy. Before doing this, I had no idea we were buying so many sweets or potato chips. In fact, I was a little surprised to find that most of our purchases were luxury items like sweets and junk food. It has been interesting to examine my purchases and see what I really need versus what I really buy.

F. Let’s me be more efficient overall. This is why I started the Price Book in the first place. Yes, it requires a little discipline to go through your purchases and write them down. However over time, it should allow me to more easily recognize good prices and to know where the best deals are. Believe it or not, keeping a Price Book should save me time and energy in the long run.

I know how anal this method will seem to some people, and I can’t really argue with that. It’s certainly not for everyone. But if you’re serious about reducing what you pay for food/household goods, I recommend it. It can save you a lot of money.

I’m liking this cabinet from Japanese retailer Hiromatsu, which are not available in the U.S. yet. It has both drawers and cabinets:

It comes in smaller sizes too:

Apartment Therapy has some suggestions of how to get this look yourself. It looks like it would be pretty easy to achieve with a blonde cabinet and a few small cans of stain.

I read that if you treat herbs like flowers and give them some water to drink and some air around the leaves, they last longer. Therefore I’m curious about herb savers, which cost $34.95. Do they really work? They are a neat idea, although I wonder if you could get the same results from a long, thin tupperware container with a little bit of water in the bottom of it.

I am loving these lovely Italian Wine Glassware from Fishs Eddy. “Change the way you look at wine glasses (and drink from them)! Beautiful little gems that liven up the table.” $24.75 for six.