When I bought my house, it was purchased from the original homeowner who designed, built, lived in, raised a family and retired as a fine artist.   One of the items he left behind included this paint splattered easel that I've been keeping in the craft room.

I am not a painter, so I didn't have an immediate use for the easel.   I did know that I didn't want to throw it away or donate it, so I kept it stashed in the room.   Originally, I thought I would just use it to display some amazing oil painting, but I found that idea didn't really work in the house.   No matter where I put the easel, it always ended up back in the craft room, just hanging out.

I think if you're like me, you've wondered what to do with your television.  For me, mounting it on the wall was never an option and I would never, ever mount it about the fireplace.   So, I think I found a clever solution: mounting it on the art easel.

Personally, I love it.  It takes my Energy Star rated TV and makes it into a piece of "art."   (Well, sorta).   And it's extremely secure on the easel (I added extra screws and reinforcement throughout).  The little shelf below is perfect for storing the remote controls, too.

This morning, I was looking out of the window from my desk and loved how the light was just pouring into the house over the drafting table.  So I grabbed my digital camera and took a snapshot to share.  I feel like this is the last time I'm going to see green leaves on the trees for a while.   I have't seen what it looks like here with the leaves changing color, but I can only imagine it's gorgeous.   One project I've been meaning to try is preserving autumnal leaves with glycerin.  Apparently, you can just cut branches before the first frost and place them in a bucket with water and glycerin.   They soak it up and preserve themselves.   We'll see….

I had a door installed in the guest bathroom because everyone complained there wasn't a door.   I designed the guest bedroom like a hotel suite, where the bathroom is adjacent to the bedroom, so just by shutting the bedroom door you have your own little home.  But still, people wanted the second door and in it went.    I am thinking of doing something fun with this door and thought about painting it with dark green chalkboard paint.    What do you think?

But before I leave the house to catch a flight to Atlanta to give a speech, I wanted to show this other new improvement here.   I found this simple stainless towel rack at Ikea and installed it by the laundry area.    I'm loving how easy and sterile it is to air-dry shirts now.   So durable and compact.  Love it!

Here's a pretty good deal on a sweet shirt.   Over at JCPenney, this Dockers brand men's shirt is just $39.99 and made from 100% organic cotton.

I'm ordering this shirt right now.   It's such a great, comfy shirt to wear around the house this Fall when I'm raking leaves, doing laundry, watching TV.   I have a few staple pieces of clothes that I wear all the time whenever I want to feel comfy and relaxed.  I think this shirt is going to become part of that comfy staple wardrobe very soon!   You can't beat the price or eco aspect of this shirt!

Okay, many thanks for all your input on what I should use to carpet the inside of the utility closet here at home.   As you can see, I went with the pattern "Working Class" because I thought the utilitarian feel of the closet was perfect for this very rough and durable modular carpet.   A very handy carpenter actually installed this for me when I was away in Los Angeles and he did an amazing job.  He even covered the little hatch door to the crawl space (on the left)! 

I did come back and install some organizers on the wall to keep the ironing board, iron and cords all organized and accessible.  I like how they look against the freshly painted walls.

In the back of the closet, I have built in shelves that I reupholstered with some old painter's tarps and tacks.    I work with Method cleaning products as a partner, so I have access to a plethora of product from them.   So, here I keep a "mini store" of my favorite Method goodies and let people "shop" the store when they visit.   I have a lot of editors from magazines who come to visit me, so I find this is a nice way of welcoming them to my home.   So far, the Go Naked all-purpose wipes seem to be the most popular.

I'm happy with the way this turned out and I think it's incredibly much better looking than before.  Many thanks for your comments.  It's fun when we decorate together!

The other night, I was sitting at home for the first night since returning from a very long trip to Los Angeles.   It was 63 degrees inside the house (at least according to the thermostat) and I realized maybe it was time to switch my eco-friendly heat pump system from "Cool" mode to "Heat." 

But instead, I decided to throw some extra blankets on the bed and pulled out a warm alpaca blanket I made a few months earlier.   It's stitched entirely together from 5 or 6 alpaca scarves and made into the coziest blanket.    I confess: I didn't sew it myself.  But I did have my local dry cleaner do it for me for very little money.   It is, after all, just straight lines that have they sew up and down the scarves.

This idea of making a quilt from scarves may be familiar to many of you.  I also have another quilt made from a hodge-podge of scarves that was photographed for "Body and Soul" magazine a few months ago.   Here's a pic how it can also look a bit more homemade by stitching them together with just yarn and a very big needle.

Anyway, as the Summer turns to Fall and the evening gets more chilly, I thought some of you might like this idea to stay cozy and warm.