How To Turn Your Dog Into a Live Chia Pet This Halloween.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of dressing up dogs. However, The Flirty Guide (Stacie Tamaki) shares with us a way to make this terrific "Howl"ween costume, turning your dog into a live Chia Pet. All you need are some plastic aquarium plants, muslin, fabric, elastic straps, felt and a willing participant. (Note: a "green" version of this costume is possible by using organic materials and eco-friendly felt as shown in the photo at the beginning of this post, courtesy of Inhabitat).



Needed elements for the Terracotta legs:
•An inner liner made of muslin
• An outer layer using terra cotta colored fabric
• Two straps and a cross strap connecting the first two together. The first straps are attached at the top of each leg, suspender style, to hold them up once you slip all four legs onto your dog.



The Steps:
1. Sew an inner leg liner using muslin or another fabric that is thin enough to bend if your dog wants to sit or lie down.
2. Sew and outer terra cotta leg with appropriately colored fabric that is also thin enough to fold and bend for your dog's comfort.
3. Make sure they are both the same width at the bottom. Drop the liner inside the terra cotta layer and fold the terra cotta layer under allowing you to sew them together with a single pass of your sewing machine.
4. Now stitch the two layers together at the top in only two places where the strap will fasten along the outer side of your dog's leg and directly across from it on the other side. This holds the two layers together without binding them completely and eliminates the need to make the pant legs fit your dog's leg perfectly. This way the pant legs can loosely fit, be comfortable and look great!
5. Once you've stitched the top of the legs together sew the felt strap along the outer side of the pant leg.
6. Do one leg first, then slip the other pant leg on your dog's other leg and pin it into place along the strap you're attaching them to. Make sure you can slip it off, bending your dog's leg to do so, and you've got the perfect length to trim the strap to.
7. Attach the other pant leg same as the first.

Elements for the covering and foliage:
• Felt to make a blanket or body cover and fabric for lining so the plastic plants do not irritate your dog.
• Plastic aquarium plants that come attached to grids (available at Petco) or organic plants for the green version:


To attach the plastic foliage, pull all of the foliage off the mats. Then make a horse blanket out of green felt and strategically cut holes in the felt using an x-acto knife. Push the prongs of the grid through the holes and reattach the foliage alternating the two different types of leaves. Then line the entire costume on the underside so that none of the plastic will poke through and make your pet uncomfortable.

And Voila! Ch Ch Ch Chia.... Chia Dog!


Images and instructions courtesy of the Flirty Guide Blog.

Pure green beauty: eco-friendly interiors that can't get much prettier

drooling - those white curtains make this shot super dreamy...

love the archway which leads from the dining area to the living room

love this cozy home office

stunning windows, airy lush bedding

via Pure Green Living

Book Review: The new book from Decor8's Holly Becker and Joanna Copestick

I'm sure many of you here have heard of Decor8, but have you heard that it's creator, Holly Becker, along with Joanna Copestick - have come out with a book?!  Well, the book, titled "Decorate, 1000 Professional Ideas for Every Room in Your Home" does not disappoint.

The book definitely focuses on ideas instead of achieving a specific look/or style - which I prefer anyway because it means there is a little something for everyone. It does tend to feature interiors with more of a Scandinavian chic aesthetic though, so if that's your style - it's an added bonus.

adore the color scheme here - the yellow, light blues, and gray is perfect.

The book also features tasty tidbits of interior design genius from Nate Berkus, Jonathon Adler, Amy Butler, and Maxwell Gillingham Ryan.

' "Start thinking about how you live, then plan a layout of rooms and furniture to suit your lifestyle before you get on the details about what style to follow" - Rita Konig, writer/interior designer" '

The book also features some helpful arrangements for different types of floor plans.

All in all, Decorate definitely has something for everyone and anyone. You can purchase it on here on Amazon. If you pick it up or already own it please share what you think!

Home office for two? How to make the space work

So my boyfriend and I will be moving into our new apartment in Bethesda, MD in a week. I still have a ton to do - pick out paint colors, paint, pack, etc. I work from home, and he will be spending a lot of time studying when he starts his masters program at GWU the end of August. We have a large living room, and a medium-sized bedroom, so we've been trying to plan out how to create workspace that works for the both of us. I know I will want my desk in the living room, and we can either set up a home office for two in the living room, or he can set up his desk in a nook in the bedroom. We're not sure which route we will take, but in my search for inspiration I found some great 2-person home offices.

Check 'em out below:

This set up is a great idea..though it will inspire footsie in times of peace and kicking in times of war...
via Unclutterer

Really like this one too...seems the key is staying uncluttered!
via Curbly

two desks situated in an L position...I like this home office but I don't think we could work this configuration in our space

via Apartment Therapy

One of my all-time fav offices.  If we had the space I'd love to do something like this
via ?

This couple created a workspace in the bay window of their bedroom with a piece of Ikea counter top. This is great but I can't work from the bedroom. The idea could really be done anywhere, though.
via Flickr

This 2fer looks like it's an ikea desk with a small set of malm ikea drawers for storage to divide the desk space.  Also one of the monitors is mounted on the wall to save space.
via Picasa

So pretty.  I need a tad more surface space on my desk though, and one of those hopelessly ugly office chairs... There's a DIY for this desk here.

I adore this home office/guest bedroom/playroom all-in-one
via Young House Love

 
Another pretty option.  This desk is fashioned from a closet door.
via Utopia Invitations

Has anyone every had a 2 person home office? Any tips for me - did it work for you or no?
Thanks guys! I'll be sharing some pics of the new apartment soon!

Two awesome shows back-to-back tonight! Design Star and awesome HGTV new-comers the Novogratz!

So - I have a confession to make - I don't really watch much HGTV, but that's only because I don't really watch much TV.   I'm not a TV person, and it is really hard for me to commit to a tv-watching schedule. Luckily, we just got DVR, and two new shows have caught my fancy. One is this season of "Design Star" (I hadn't heard of the show until this season), and the first two episodes I loved, and the other is "Home by Novogratz." I know of the Novogratz via Six by Design and their awesome book, "Downtown Chic" - which I reviewed here.

So when I heard they had a new show airing on HGTV I figured I'd give it a shot, and I really like it so far. The duo's solutions are great for people who love to try DIY projects, shop at flea markets, and find it really important that their home reflects them, not the most recent issue of the top-of-the-line home and interiors glossy.

I have for you a sneak peak at what you'll catch on tonight's "Home by Novogratz," where the couple livens up a rather dull family beach condo into a colorful and whimsical get-away. What's really exciting about tonight is the Novogratz are also guest starring on "Design Star" and then their new episode airs directly after that! So be sure to have the tube on HGTV at 9 for "Design Star", and/or 10 for "Home by Novogratz"

These images below are from their first episode, where the Novogratz team created this awesome surfer-girl home for two sisters.

You can read more about the show on HGTV.

Eggs + Sharpies And The Egg-Bot Will Do The Decorating Work For You.

Now you can impress the Easter Bunny with stylish and artfully decorated eggs created by the Egg-Bot, a robotic kit that is available for purchase.



The Eggbot is an open-source art robot that can draw on spherical or egg-shaped objects from the size of a ping pong ball to that of a small grapefruit-- roughly 1.25 to 4.25 inches in diameter (3 - 10 cm). The kit is based on the original design by Bruce Shapiro. The newest version, the "Egg-Bot 2.0," is a modern and friendly update, designed with the assistance of Bruce and his team.



The Eggbot is super adjustable, and is designed to draw on all kinds of things that are normally "impossible" to print on. Not just eggs but ping pong balls, light bulbs, mini pumpkins, and even things like wine glasses-- with a bit of work. In the photos, you can see just a few of the things that you can make with an eggbot: Incredible personalized golf balls, christmas ornaments, light bulbs, and (yes) eggs.




The Eggbot chassis is made of tough fiberglass, with integrated heat sinks for the included motors. The pen and egg motors are high-torque precision stepping motors, and the pen lift mechanism is a quiet and reliable servo motor.




The Eggbot kit is easy to assemble in a couple of hours, and only requires a couple of basic tools like miniature Phillips-head and flathead screwdrivers. You'll also need a recent-vintage computer with an available USB port (Mac, Windows or Linux), plus internet access to download assembly instructions and necessary software.



Eggbot w/ EBB Driver Board The Eggbot kit comes complete with a fully assembled and tested EiBotBoard v2.0 (EBB) USB interface/motor driver board. No soldering or programming are required.



The EBB allows your computer to directly control the stepper and servo motors. The onboard 16X microstepping driver chips along with the 200 step/revolution stepper motors give a combined resolution of 3200 steps/revolution in both axes. A universal-input plug-in power supply (9 V 1.5 A) is included with the Eggbot kit, as is a USB cable.

Basic operation is much like that of a printer driver: you import or make a drawing in Inkscape, and use the extensions to plot your drawing onto whatever object you've mounted in the Eggbot. It's all handled through an easy to use graphical user interface, and works cleanly on Mac, Windows and Linux.



The standard pen holder included with the EggBot kit is designed to fit various art pens including Sharpie Ultra Fine Point pens. However, it can actually fit almost any pen of similar size. If you want to use a pen that doesn't fit, the pen holder is made of wood and can be enlarged to suit your taste.

You can even fit a lot of things that aren't pens. One example: They'll be offering a diamond-point engraver tool as an optional add-on for the EggBot kit in the near future.


above: The Eggbot Logo on an Egg

If you have additional questions about the Eggbot kit, you may want to look at the Eggbot FAQ.

The Egg-Bot 2.0 kit was designed by Windell Oskay and Lenore Edman with extensive help from Bruce Shapiro and Brian Schmalz. The kit includes assembly and use instructions, open source hardware release documents and example plot files.

The Eggbot kit is available here.