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Our homes are made up of lots of working parts — bedrooms, redecorated kitchens, upgraded baths, ogle-worthy renos, ticks and tricks for cleaning and organizing, and real home tours all live here to represent the spaces of your Offbeat Home.

How to be a happy vampire in the sun

I have pale skin, and I enjoy having pale skin. I dislike the beach, tan lines, sun damage, and 100 degree heat. However, in mid-July, my husband and I will be staying for a week in a Galveston, Texas beach house. Do any of the Homies have advice for keeping the sun off while keeping cool? (Other than liberal application of sunscreen, of course.)

How to make your own museum-worthy kinsugi bowl

I wanted my DIY kinsugi bowl to look like some sort of weird space rock, or rare mineral. When we honeymooned in Washington DC, I spent hours in the Natural History museum where I verified that my results were spot-on. Here was the process I went through…

Ariel’s whirling rainbow dream… after the remodel

Last fall, I wrote about how I was remodeling my one-bedroom condo to better accommodate my three-person family. Well, six months later, I am here to report back with our-post remodel home tour… it’s six months later because the 6-8 week remodel turned into four months of my family drifting around and couch surfing. We just moved back in a month ago.

Quick and dirty couch makeover for under $50

I’m in a bit of an awkward position because I can’t afford to buy a brand new (nice) couch right at the moment, but I do intend to replace this old couch within a year. Thus, I need to have a useable, comfortable couch until I can replace it, but don’t want to put any more money into it than I have to. So with the Interwebz as my guide, I did a few more hours of research about couches and successfully “made over” my sad old couch for under $50.

My favorite geeky April Fool’s tradition

April Fool’s day went from my most loathed made-up holiday (Valentine’s Day is a close second) to one of my favorite days of the year. That’s all because of Think Geek

How to start from seed

How to start from seed

I’ve got a lot of seeds I haven’t used up from the past two or three years, and I promised myself I wouldn’t buy more until I’ve used what I’ve got. With such a variety of ages and sources, there’s no telling what will make it to harvest, especially with the older seeds. But it’s either throw them away or throw them in dirt to see what happens. Here’s my general plan of attack for starting anything from seed…

How can I make my uncomfortable tub more relaxing for a comfy soak?

My apartment’s bathtub is not conducive to a relaxing soak. The back wall of the tub goes straight up at a ninety degree angle, with a little ledge before the wall.

Get a giant perfume bottle vase without cutting glass

Doesn’t everybody love Dior? I cut the front from an old perfume box and glued it to a glass vase, for an over-sized perfume bottle effect.