La Mamba Studio has me rethinking the standard patio umbrella with their Eria Sunshade

Turns out the Sigg bottle wasn’t so safe after all. The company admits to BPA in their bottles!

Funny faces out of everyday clothes at Crooked Brains.

Get into the spirit of the season with these fall-inspired pillows at Casa Sugar.

We’ve gone from greenwashing to localwashing. Check out the bogus marketing of businesses that claim to be “local.”

Read a rather glowing review of Just Bare Chicken over at Not Martha. She’s got me convinced!

Kudos to duly noted for sharing this internet treasure with us all. Turn any youtube video’s audio into a downloadable mp3 file at ListenToYouTube.com. Genius!

I took the HomeGoods StyleScope quiz, and just as I suspected, I’m an “earthy modern.” Silly as that sounds, it makes sense to me — I love to garden, I love mid-century modern decor, and lately we’ve been using bright colors to liven up our space quite a bit. But obviously an online quiz can’t help you with every decorating dilemma, so HomeGoods wants to do you one better — they’re offering a $200 gift card for two lucky Shelterrific readers who are ready to change up their style!

Here’s how to enter to win a $200 HomeGoods gift card:

- Go to the HomeGoods site and take the HomeGoods StyleScope quiz.
- Once you get your quiz results, come back to this entry and share your result with the rest of us in comments. Tell us what you think — is it accurate? If so, how could you use the results to spice up your decor?
- If you win, be willing to share a “before” and “after” photo of your space to show how you’ve used your HomeGoods card to add some flair — we’ll be expecting to make you famous in a future post!
- Once comments close, we’ll choose our two favorite entries from the comments. So be specific and have fun.

Please leave your comment no later than Wednesday, September 16, 5 p.m. EST. One comment per person, please.

Thanks, HomeGoods, for making this great opportunity available to our readers! –Mary T.

We’ve all been there: you’ve been whipped into a frenzy moving
furniture around and are just about to collapse into the couch in your
newly formatted living room when — Gasp! — you notice indents all
over the rug from where your furniture previously stood. Here’s how
you make those pesky pockets disappear: simply let an ice cube melt in
the indent. The rug’s fibers will soak up the melting water and fluff
back up. If that doesn’t do the trick (depending on how long the
furniture stood there or how heavy it is) you may need to give the
fibers a good raking with a wide tooth comb. –Katie D.

I never met a French fry I didn’t like — even the little soggy guys at the bottom of the bag are fair game for this girl. Despite my obsession, I’ve limited my membership in the fry fan club because I know how unhealthy they are — but all that oil is what makes ‘em taste good, right? Wrong. Starting this fall, T-Fal is laying the smackdown on the French fry franchise with the U.S. launch of the ActiFry.

Already popular in Europe, the ActiFry is a “fast-slow cooker” designed to make healthy meals while minimizing the use of oil. Its claim to fame is that it can cook two pounds of fresh-cut French fries using only one tablespoon of oil, which effectively brings the fat content down to 3%, as compared with 9% in a conventional oven, 14% in a standard deep fryer and nearly 16% at fast food chains. But how does it taste? Click to find out! –Sarah C. (more…)

While I know it might be difficult to fit this piece into your home decor, I couldn’t help but share it with you all. In the mist of a generation where graffiti artists like Dash and Banksy have received international fame, it seems a tribute to their medium of choice (a spray can) is only fitting. Designed by Don’t Feed the Swedes, the “CAP” is on show at Berlin International Design Festival and will be sold by selected retailers and online partners. –Erica P.

Here’s the downside of announcing your summer projects to the world — having to admit that you didn’t finish them. The shed project is still very much a go, but we’ve had some setbacks: my husband got a large job that precluded spending time on sourcing and building, and we discovered that the second-hand shed we bought for interim storage has a leaky roof. At least we have those concrete feet! Sigh.

On the plus side, the reclaimed concrete patio is finished for the season! Click for how we did it! –Mary T. (more…)

Ahhh, summer…. Your joys are infinite, even if your days are not — blackberries, tomatoes, nectarines, to name just a few. Zucchini, on the other hand, can be a blessing AND a curse. I don’t grow squash, but without fail, every year I end up with tons of the stuff, gifted to me by overburdened neighbors and coworkers. And it’s never the gorgeous tiny, tender ones, either — it’s mega-zucchini the size of your forearm. What to do with all this lovely bounty? Well, some of it gets peeled, grated, salted, and drained and used in zucchini fritters, but the bulk of it gets baked into breads, muffins, and bundts. I usually use my mom’s carrot cake recipe as my zucchini bread base, but this time I took a little inspiration from the Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cupcake recipe in last month’s Gourmet magazine and created a chocolatey, moist cake using only ingredients I had on hand. It was easy, too! Good thing, because I brought home yet another five-pound squash last night! –Megan B. Click for chocolately, zucchini-y goodness! (more…)

This past weekend in Massachusetts there was a lot of news coverage of the great white sharks spotted off the coast of Cape Cod. I was busy with my sister’s wedding (Congrats, Sara!), but I’m sure it put a bit of a damper on many folks’ holiday beach plans. In honor of those big, bad fish, I’ve rounded up some shark-inspired loot like this Finn Salt & Pepper Set by Colin O’Dowd. While I’d much prefer not to see any sharks on a beach outing, this Shark Beach Towel from Pottery Barn Kids is made for the sand. You can also bring the feeding frenzy into the bathroom with this great, graphic Sharks Shower Curtain from Garnet Hill. (Plus, it’s on sale!) –Erica P.

If there’s one thing I love more than cheese, it’s chocolate. Happily, I can find it in my favorite cheese shop! It was inside Murray’s Cheese that I spotted these beautifully wrapped chocolates by Mast Brothers Chocolate. Based in Brooklyn, Mast Brothers are the New York area’s only bean-to-bar chocolate makers, and are among a limited number of such artisans nationwide. Brothers Rick and Michael hand make each chocolate using cacao derived from a select group of small family farms worldwide. At $11.99 each, these are a tad pricier than your average chocolate bar, but the gorgeous paper wrappers and the Mast Brothers’ love for community — and, of course, the taste — make them a great gift. Buy Mast Brothers chocolate bars online at Murray’s Cheese and coming soon at the Mast Brothers site. –Sarah C.

If you’re crafty and like all things cute, you can try your hand combining the two with Creature Crochet, a new book by Kristen Rask. Rask is the owner of Schmancy Toys and has contributed to our pages before. Creature Crochet, available at Barnes & Noble, not only contains instructions for 12 creature projects to crochet, it includes materials to make two of them. To give you a sneak peek, here’s instructions on how to make the ultra cute (of course!) and fairly simple “Eggy Pig” — just click the link for the how-tos! (more…)