My husband and I decided that we wanted new furniture for our den. At the time, my husband was suffering from major allergies and during our remodeling of our home, we rid ourselves of almost all textiles. The only fibers left were some very sheer window coverings that could be washed once a week and our bed linen was in layers so that it could be washed the same way. No thick comforters or thi...

We have about three acres of lawn. Due to my obsessive need to plant trees, bushes, flowers and stick the odd lawn ornament right smack dab in the middle of a bunch of grass - my husband and I had to figure something out very quickly or things were going to get baaaad. Using a weed trimmer around all of these places AND mowing with a traditional  riding mower would take an entire day. Mowi...

After discovering that I had a birth defect that could only be corrected with bypass surgery, needless to say, my life and everything about who I was and who I thought I was was gone. The road to recovery is harder than anything that I've ever experienced in my life and I've some pretty terrible things to overcome before this. My surgeon and other doctors highly recommended that I go th...

My husband and I went through a massive remodeling effort a few years ago. We wanted more space in our home, but didn't want to give up our land that was on a small mountain. Our views are spectacular, it isn't far from where we both work, but our small 900 sq ft cabin wasn't cutting it. Instead of moving, we transformed the footprint of our home to create a unique habitat, rem...

During our infamous remodel of our home, we turned the face of the house around. It was facing the ridge and looking over the edge of the small mountain and our lawn was in the back yard. We decided that to maximize the use and structure of the home, we needed to have the front door face the lawn and utilize the back door that was surrounding my treetops as more of a shady retreat.&nb...

We went through a large remodel of our home and after appraisal of our finished work, we were pleasantly surprised to come out much better in our equity probably as we had done most of the work ourselves.We had always wanted a pool but feared the constant maintenance required to keep one in good condition. Our neighbors had recently put a fiberglass pool in and we were invited to take a look at...

My husband and I had a 7 night stay at the Grand Palladium. We stayed in a standard room in the Colonial side. This was our sixth trip to the Yucatan. We've stayed everywhere from Puerto Adventuras to Cancun to Cozumel over the last 15 years. First, we fell in love with the Mayan Rivera during our first trip, but this was when Playa Del Carmen was only a few blocks in size and a great offbe...

My husband wanted to invest a fancy grill. Now, to me a fancy grill is one that looks like a wok and has three little legs with a cover on it. An unfancy grill is a fire. Of course, his definition was different. It involved gas tanks and burners and steel and looked incredibly like an oven with wheels to me. Which we already have an oven with all that sans wheels, of course....

Impulse Shopping. About 2 years ago, I was wandering around in a Petland Store (something I have learned NOT to do) and discovered parakeets, or budgies as they are also called. I was avoiding the puppy row and the kitten row and wound up on the bird row thinking I'd be safe. Well, I wasn't. They had these little blue and white birds and without thinking twice, I promptly told the sales...

My husband and I owned two cars in 2007, a Chrysler 300m and a Dodge Durango. With gas prices soaring and both of us having a 20 mile commute to work, we decided to retire the Dodge Durango and purchase a car that had better gas mileage. I had wanted a hybrid car as CO2 emissions and the US dependence on foreign oil supplies had been weighing on my mind. i really did not want a small car like t...

Let me start by saying that I have stick straight hair and I have not embraced it. Being from the south and a product of the 80's, curly hair and I have never parted. As my hair (and my sensibilities) can no longer tolerate perms, I had to find a tool that would give me the BIG hair I need and most importantly, maintain the volume throughout the day. I can...

Having very pale skin and dark red hair, I was fed up with shaving and waxing my underarms and bikini line. With summer ending and the installation of our pool, the only solution was to get bikini waxes every month the following swim season since shaving everyday is impossible. For me, getting bikini waxes is a very private matter and not one I relish the thought of doing on a regular basi...

I played with Little Kiddle dolls as a child. They were my favorite dolls to play with because they were so small and portable and I could carry them around everywhere (even church). I had all the varieties, the locket dolls that you wore as necklaces, the ones that came as perfumes, the fairies, all of them. I have a few of them left from my childhood. But my absolute favorites were the Little...

I love fine art. In fact, I studied it in school for some time until I realized I liked painting as a "hobby" and that I was not cut out for the life of a struggling artist. Neither did I wake up each morning with that hunger to paint. But I did wake up with was an urge to LOOK at fine art. My husband is the same, thank goodness. We always visit museums and we...

I recently had bypass surgery at 43. I had a heart attack in February due to a birth defect in my left main artery. Instead of being the size of a garden hose, it was the size of straw, so to speak. The doctors tell me it is just the way God made me. Fortunately for me, God also got me to the ER in time for the wonderful doctors at Memorial Hospital to save my life. When I came home, due to the...

Last year, my company asked me to lead a project that would have me traveling to manufacturing plants located in very remote places. Some were so remote in that I was given instructions on where to fill my gas tank when it reached the half way mark. I was not at all comfortable with getting lost in the middle of nowhere. In the late 1990s, I traveled alone all over the United States&n...