Get in, Stay in. That's My Motto. by Guest Blogger Andie Furber

One thing that my mom always says when we're in a public restroom is "Come on, hurry up, I don't want to stay in here all day!" or "Get in, get out...." As you can see, she's not the biggest fan of bathrooms. But I love my bathroom. I feel it's an essential place to keep all your stuff.

In my bathroom, I have a designated place for EVERYTHING. By the sink I keep all of my daily things, like toothpaste, a hairbrush, deodorant, etc. I have a little green jar to hold my toothpaste (My mom and I have switched to Tom's All-Natural toothpaste) and toothbrush. On the other side of the sink, I have some handsoap and a towel.

One thing in my bathroom that my mom got me that I absolutely LOVE is a double-decker shelf of jars to hold my stuff. And every jar holds a specific thing:

Jar 1: Chapstick
Jar 2: Hair clips and rubber bands
Jar 3: Bracelets
Jar 4: Necklaces
Jar 5: Q-Tips
Jar 6: Miscellaneous

It's an essential for me. I use it everyday, and I always know where to find everything.

I have 3 drawers in my bathroom. Each one is organized so I can find everything. The top drawer holds things like spare toothbrushes, and since I'm in a theatre group, all of my stage makeup. In the middle drawer, there's things like headbands, and soap, and pretty much everything you can think of. And the bottom drawer holds my blow dryer and straightening iron.

Even though my mom doesn't like bathrooms much, I take pride in my bathroom, because it's neat, organized, colorful, and Cute.

Get in, get out. That's my motto.

I have a love/hate relationship with my bathroom. I know the bathroom is a necessary part of my house, but I really don't like to acknowledge what goes on in there. I like to display my pretty bars of soap in my shell soap dish, I love pretty hand towels, but up until now, extra rolls of toilet paper have been completely out of the question. Don't even get me started on the subject of magazines in the bathroom.

I've realized recently though, that my children (one in particular) may or may not choose to use toilet paper if there's none available. So my design challenge in recent weeks has been to figure out a stylish way to store extra rolls of toilet paper in the bathrooms that don't have built in cabinets. The solution is obvious:






but I just can't do it.

I've decided, instead that I'm going to pretend my toilet paper is something it's not, and display it proudly like I would display beautiful flowers. I've narrowed it down to three choices, all from Pottery Barn:






All of these vase collections have a size that's about 7" in diameter and 20" high, which will fit about four super fluffy rolls (I've been doing my research.) I'm leaning toward the white glass, so no one has to know what's in there.

On second thought, I may want to be more obvious about it -- if Jack can't find the toilet paper, he may not be inclined to use any.

Save the Ghosts! by Guest Blogger Jack Furber

My Mom's right. I don't like change at all. When she moves stuff around the house, I always put it back. When she throws stuff away, I get it back out (don't ask.) All this talk about changing the candles on the kitchen table makes me feel sick.

I'm an 11 year old dude. Things are changing all the time in my life. New teachers. New clothes. I strongly dislike new clothes. (My Mom doesn't like me to say "hate.") What isn't changing? If my Mom is going to change something, she knows my room's off limits, but I still worry anyway that one day I'm going to come home from school and find my room has been turned into a sewing room or something girl-y like that.

I'm happy to read in my Mom's blog that Mr. and Mrs. Bones are not on the chopping block. But is it too much to ask to expect that every Halloween, the same old ghost candles come out, and I get to see them on the kitchen table every day?

Save the Ghosts! Don't let the man bring you down!

T minus Six Weeks to Halloween. Time to Decorate!

Because I'm in the mail order business, I tend to start shopping and planning early for holidays. Halloween is still six weeks away, but feels like it's right around the corner to me.

My kids are big into decorating for each holiday, and so the boxes are about to come out with our Halloween mugs, our big hairy spiders, and Mr. and Mrs. Bones, the plastic skeletons that hang out on our front porch throughout the month of October. Each year we add a few new things to round out our decorating statement, but they have to work with spiders and the Bones family -- they're non-negotiable.

I've decided the focus this year will be to replace the centerpiece I always have on my kitchen table. For several years it's been black slate tiles with ghost candles on them. I think it's time to enhance the level of sophistication, as the ghosts are looking pretty sad after five long years of spending 11 months of the year in a box in the garage. I've decided to do a pumpkin centerpiece that will be a mixture of real pumpkins and pumpkin candles on vintage breadboards. My kids love pumpkins.
When I started shopping, I was surprised how many good pumpkin candles there were in the market.
I found these at Pottery Barn:












I found these at Williams-Sonoma:












and I found these at Crate and Barrel:












When I mix these pumpkin candles up with some real pumpkins and gourds from the Farmer's Market, I think this centerpiece will be worthy of the kind of status Mr. and Mrs. Bones hold in my house. My son Jack, who does not like change at all, says I cannot retire the ghosts. However, I think when Jack sees my fabulous ode to pumpkins, he will change his mind. I'll let you know how it goes in a later post.

Five Boys or 50 Boys. Same Thing

I've always prided myself in having a house that goes back together very quickly after a party. My husband and I have a place for everything, and very easy care surfaces and materials in all the rooms. We usually can clean up in about 20 minutes after all our guests leave, even the 13 and under set.

However, we threw a party last night that presented new and interesting cleanup challenges -- some that we're still scratching our heads over. I took five 11 year old boys to the Giants game, then brought them back to the house for a movie and a sleepover. They were all very well behaved, but I can't help but wonder:

What they were doing when they got chocolate on the wall in the hallway
Why every ball in our garage is now on the roof
What they needed all those towels for
What that is on the rug in the family room and how it got there
Really, five boys and not one of them can hit the toilet?

The party was fun, and the boys had a great time, so we don't mind the little extra elbow grease to get the house back in order. However, for our next party, we'll have to play a little better defense. I'm thinking:

Sleeping in tents outside (the boys, not me)
Serving food that's not quite so delicious -- alfalfa sprouts and lima beans maybe
Giving each boy one towel and a box of clorox wipes instead of a goodie bag
Awarding a prize to the neatest kid -- probably a car