Design

Once a while we found a vendor that we just love. Arteriors is one of them. A home accessories company, Arteriors' core strength is its lighting products. Here are a few of their chandeliers that we just adore: Catalonia Chandelier $3250 Copacabana Coconut Chandelier $2375 Pagoda Chandelier $920 Medina Chandelier $875 Kensington Chandelier $2750 Louis Chandelier $1750 Stratford Chandelier $1125 St. Charles Chandelier $1325 Giovanni Chandelier $1250 Parisian Chandelier $3250 To see more of Arteriors products, you can visit their website . Arteriors does not sell to the consumers directly, however. If you need help in purchasing any of their products, please contact us . We'll be more than happy to help.

Christmas Tour Part II: Come inside for a peek at some of our decorations for Christmas. This will be our first Christmas in several years with all our kids at home.

Christmas tour part I: Considering hubby has been away during the time to decorate for Christmas, I have had limited time and muscle for the task at hand. Part I consists of a peek at our winter wonderland just outside our front door.

Wonderful areas rich in biodiversity are natural gardens, and great places to visit. We like to travel to interesting natural areas around the world, focusing on areas that are rich in natural history and culture. We're off for semester break in South India this year; look for travelblog posts (if I have the opportunity)!

Bar stool is one of the hardest items to shop for, isn't it? It's rare to find ones that look cool, be well-constructed, yet affordable. We recently found some that we just love: Brown Leather Modern Barstool This one is upholstered in top grain leather and is superly made. It comes in brown, black and white leather. No assembly needed! Best of all, the seat height is adjustable. Here's a new one that just so sleek and simple, we expect to see it in Met Home any day now... And for sheer comfort, nothing beats this one: For more cool, modern barstools, check out the barstool section.

I looked out the breakfast room window this morning and caught a glimpse of the crescent moon framed by clouds tinted a rich purple by the sunrise. By the time I took this picture, the color had faded somewhat, as the light brightened. It reminded me of sunrises in the tropics, as we seldom have such vivid early morning color.

I hadn't rooted cuttings much before, and I thought I'd try some Spanish lavender (lovely flowers most of the summer) and an amazingly hardy red climbing rose in front of the house. (The lavender image is from a fellow blogger from Alabama: somethingthatwontcompute.blogspot.com.) The rose has flowered season after season with no help from us; it scrambles up an old dogwood tree, and then flowers and flowers. Drought didn't stop it; light frosts are shrugged off. It's amazing. We don't water, fertilize, spray -- it's definitely a rose to grow! But since it pre-dates us, and is of no recognizable variety (without doing any research), I thought cuttings would be easy enough to try. So in late summer, I took tip cuttings of the lavender and of the rose (this was in the depths of our dreadful August heat), dipped them in some Rootone that I'd had for awhile, and stuck them in some pots filled with half and half vermiculite and potting mix. I checked them ...