Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials
Every time I go to Europe for a week with just one carry on (and a purse as my personal item) I get asked for a detailed rundown of how that’s possible. (There have been two times. That made it sound like I go every month.) But I’ve definitely worked out a packing method that allows me to travel lightly and have lots of outfit options that I love wearing.
I love an iced something for my daily coffee. And most days that’s a cold brew I make at home. For over 2 years now, I’ve relied on this cold brew maker to keep a delicious batch at the ready in my fridge. I’m going to show you exactly how I make homemade cold brew and why it’s my method of choice. Sherry and I aren’t expert baristas or even persnickety coffee connoisseurs. We prioritize simple & straightforward brewing methods that can be successful without treating coffee like an intricate science. No shade if you have time & energy for it, but this guide is for the average home coffee drinker who wants good, reliable cold brew without stressing over the details.
We get a surprising number of questions about how we make our pour over coffee (and even requests for a video tutorial). We aren’t baristas by any means, but we love an easy, affordable, and delicious cup every day. So we’re sharing how our system checks all of those boxes – without ever tasting bitter or burned. Pour over is known to make better tasting coffee with less equipment & waste than electric coffee makers, but the process can sound intimidating – especially for beginners! Honestly, pour over is only as complicated as you want it to be. So we’ll show you just how easy it us for us to make. I do it every morning in just a few minutes. And I truly think it tastes better than many fancy coffee shops – so it saves me money!
Anyone who knows me is typically shocked when they learn that I now have – and sleep next to! – an actual real-life cat. Even I can’t believe it most days. But if you follow me on Instagram, you know my cat obsession is currently cranked to 11 and my cat possession currently stands at 1. So today I’ll share my personal experience about managing and essentially eliminating my cat allergy – including the products that have (and haven’t) helped.
We love having friends over to our backyard firepit, which means we eat A LOT of s’mores. That means A LOT of opportunities to try unique twists on traditional s’mores. There’s nothing wrong with the tried-and-true recipe, but introducing new ingredients and combos keeps things fun, interesting, and even better tasting. So here are 5 of our favorite “upgraded” s’more ideas for your next firepit gathering.
Our kids are very much into the traditional Jack-O-Lantern-style pumpkin carving, often trying to make a scarier, grosser, or goofier face than last Halloween. But we still remember a time when toddler-friendly (even baby-friendly!) pumpkin “carving” was the name of the game over here. So we wanted to highlight six simple, fun, but unconventional pumpkin decorating ideas for kids that we’ve used in the past. Including a “romantic” one we made pre-kids (yes, I’ll pause while you ponder what exactly can be romantic about a pumpkin…). We’ve included a brief description of each below, but you can also follow the link to the original posts for more photos and details about each pumpkin-carving project. “Baby’s
The annual Color of the Year announcements are one of our favorite traditions to follow (and predict, with varying degrees of sucess). Each year, a lot of the largest paint manufacturers select a hue and/or palette they believe “captures” and/or “forecasts” design trends. Some are bold. Some are boring. Some are straight-up bonkers (who remembers the color we affectionately dubbed “hot dog”?). So we’ll continue to update this post as the 2026 COTYs are announced over the next six months.
We got lots of questions about the “miracle” cloning paste we showed on Instagram recently. What is it? What does it do? And why the heck is it called “keiki”? Short answer: keiki paste is an easy-to-apply growth hormone for your houseplants that can help fill out bare spots on pothos, orchids, and more. It’s a smart solution for any plant parent, but we’ll tell you why it may fall short of being truly miraculous.
Based on the DM pet naming requests I’ve been fielding lately, many of you seem to be just as obsessed with pet names as we are. So today we’re rounding out our series with the last remaining category. We’ve shared posts full of ideas for girl dog names, girl cats names, and boy dog names – so last up we get to cover boy cats names! We’ve never owned a male cat together, but John has had two in his lifetime. His childhood cat Casper (named for his white coat) and his sister’s cat Monty (named for Montague Street in Brooklyn, where she lived at the time). So this list was a fun thought experiment, and who knows… with the way the universal cat distribution system works, we might end up with a male cat someday.
Naming our first dog “Hamburger” (aka “Burger,” seen below as a new puppy) back in 2006 officially kicked off our obsession with unique pet names. So much so that we actually pitched a pet naming book concept to several literay agents before starting this blog (unsurprisingly, it was rejected). But we recently returned to our first love with posts rounding up 200 Girl Dog Names and 200 Girl Cat Names. So naturally, we are back today to continue with 200 name ideas for a boy dog. We’ve got everything from popular human names to quirky food names and more…
I’ve daydreamed about buying a backyard movie set-up (projector, screen, etc) for several summers now. But the logistics and potential expense always stopped me… until last month! And now I feel silly for waiting, because we pulled it off with just 3 pieces of equipment that cost less than $200 total! That’s cheaper than the cost of some projectors… or a few family trips to the theater! And now we can host unlimited movie gatherings with friends (we’ve already had two in the last two weeks!).
We’re just as surprised as anyone that we officially own a cat. And to maintain balance in the universe (since we did a dog naming post) here is the cat version for all the cat people out there – INCLUDING US NOW! WILD! We’ve pulled together 200 ideas for naming a female cat or kitten, along with tips for picking the perfect name… or should I say purr-fect.
