The Kitchn takes us on one of our favorite tours ever: through Louis Armstrong’s cool blue kitchen, complete with piano hinges on the cabinets and a built-in countertop food processor. There are quite a few steal-able ideas, like the lucite shelf over the window above the sink.

This Changeable Chair by designer Wing Fung Ng reminds us of the chair/stepstool combo we spotted in Armstrong’s kitchen with a modern twist. Via MocoLoco.

Ferment your own black garlic, intentionally, at Craft.

Build the best slip-n-slide ever, with the instructions at Make magazine. Yes! Grownup sized!

Psst! Wanna score some affordable versions of the Louis Ghost chair? CasaSugar gives us the goods.

Swiss Miss has been one of our favorite resources for new iphone apps we can’t live without. Here’s another fun one: Letterboard, which turns your phone into a hotel convention center sign!

Tired of throwing those broccoli stems in the compost? Then do what the fine frugal folks at Thirty Bucks a Week did: broccoli stem pickles!

And how about dessert? Or breakfast? Both? Over at the New York Times, they’ve got us longing for elderflower pancakes with whipped cream. Yes, please.

More Kartell on sale, this time at Design Public and at Yliving (with free shipping!) through July 18.

Through August 15, save 20% on all Gus Modern essentials upholstery, and 15% on Matteo bedding for a limited time at Bobby Berk Home.

Snag savings while you can in the last days of ABC Carpet & Home’s summer sale, which includes up to 75% off original prices, 20% off special order upholstery and 15% off custom sisal area rugs online.

Get up to 20% off select Marimekko Bedding at Crate & Barrel, now through August 1.

Now through July 26, receive 15% off select desks at West Elm.

Enjoy 35% off plus free ground shipping during the Friends & Family Summer Sale at Chronicle Books. Enter promo code FRIENDS at checkout through July 28th.

While neither my apartment nor my lifestyle can accommodate a real dog right now, the Pack of Dogs furniture collection may be the next best thing. Created in 2007 by Ricardo Casas, Héctor Esrawe, Emiliano Godoy, Cecilia León de la Barra and Oscar Nuñez, the line features versatile pieces shaped like dogs in different positions and named after Mexican wrestlers. I’d love to take one of these guys in as a bookshelf, but they can also be used as magazine racks, side tables or simply as décor-savvy stand-ins for the dog in your future.

Visit Pirwi for more information and order at Proteak.com. — Sarah C.

Via Phetched

Like most people, I don’t particularly enjoy being sick. Something I like even less? The old cold-during-a-heat-wave routine. It’s the worst, and it is the story of my life this week. I rarely get sick, but when I do I try to take care of my cold while keeping over-the-counter drugs to a minimum. For years, I’ve been using my mom’s three-step cold remedy.

At the first signs of a cold:
- Take 1000 milligrams of vitamin c every hour until you begin feeling better.
- Put one-two drops of hydrogen peroxide in each ear and drain every hour until you no longer hear it bubble up.
- Pop a zinc-acetate lozenge (like Cold-Eeze) every two hours until your cold decides to hit the highway. And in my experience, it will, but this is only effective if started at the first hint of a sore throat.

We’ve posted before about yummy ways to fight the common cold, but as I lay here in the thick of it I’d love to hear about some new simple ways to kick the sick. So, help! What’s your best at-home cold cure? — Sarah C.

While visiting Southern California last month (another post to come), my husband and I got to go through and clean out the vintage-licious pink kitchen of his childhood home. It was impossible for me to hide my glee at much of what I saw (vintage pyrex! milk glass cake stands!), but the piece de resistance had to be a healthy amount of Franciscan Silver Pine porcelain china. Though its true luster was masked by a dusty patina, it took my breath away at first glance. We shipped it home along with the rest of the high school year books, 45’s, and various other delights — to the hefty tune of $200. Come to find out the cost of the shipping was made up for in the china alone, as a single coffee cup and saucer fetches about $10 at ebay or replacements, ltd (which is awesome, btw). Other pieces get exponentially more expensive, as much as $140 for a serving platter and $740 for a 45 piece set . For now, I guess I’ll be content with the amount we have, but if any readers out there have a couple of cups and a set of soup bowls they’d be willing to give up for a song, let me know! –Megan B.

I cringe every time a glass touches my table without a coaster but I never want to be the fussy (read: lame) hostess nagging her guests to use one. Lucky for me, I just discovered these hibiscus slip-on coasters. Made by etsy seller Dimmalimm Home, the unique covers can be slipped on when you pour the drinks so everyone is already issued a coaster. A set of twelve is only $24 and makes a great hostess gift for any of the summer BBQs you’ll grace this season. Bonus: they also serve as drink tags! Since they’re all different colors, guests can easily distinguish their drink from others without the jangling, weird wine stem charms. — Katie D.

Last week, summer came on with a vengeance here in the Pacific Northwest. This caused me to plan my meals with as little cooking as possible, relegating as much as I could to the grill. When I was shopping for shrimp for my grilled paella (and enjoying some free AC), I spotted boneless pork sirloin chops on sale. I decided to piggyback on the charcoal I was already using to cook dinner for a few more nights. I threw a stalk of lemongrass, some ginger, and a bunch of cilantro into my basket and headed home to start the grill, excited at what the result would be.

I marinated the chops for about an hour in a spicy, fragrant mix of ginger, lemongrass, garlic and Sambal, rounded out by some soy sauce, agave, and lemon juice for acidity. Once the chops were charred to juicy perfection, I let them rest. Then I reduced the marinade down to a thick and flavorful glaze, cut the pork into chunks, and combined the two. Piled high with fresh, bright cilantro and crisp red onion in a grilled corn tortilla, it was an East-meets-West bite of heaven. And the leftovers were absolutely delightful cold, wrapped in cool butter lettuce and mixed with diced radish, red onion, and, yes, more cilantro. The ideal summer dish! — Megan B. Get the full recipe after the jump! (more…)

Not only did Stefan Magdalinski find an iPad in London to send to his wife in South Africa where they weren’t yet available, he also had it covered in chocolate with help from his chocolate maker friend Paul A. Young. (”Chocolate maker friend” — don’t you wish you had one of those?) The birthday present has launched him to the top of the “Husband of the Year” finals and also allowed him to get out of a record 300 “Whose turn is it to load the dishwasher?” fights. While not all of us can afford to nab the latest gadget-turned-status-symbol, I love the idea of wrapping a present in chocolate! The process would probably work just as well on a great book or a DVD of a favorite movie. There are enough pictures at Stefan’s website to inspire your own chocolate-wrapped DIY projects (and a little jealousy). — Katie D.

I once read a cooking blog where the very talented author/chef said she keeps little pre-measured balls of all kinds of cookie dough in her freezer. If company arrives unexpectedly, she’ll have something to pop in the oven for dessert. That is exactly the kind of forward-thinking hostess that I am…in my dreams (also: little blue birds fly into
my kitchen and tie my apron around my waist). In the real world, I keep a stash of boxed cake mixes in my cupboard for impromptu parties. Lately, to doctor them up and make them seem more homemade, I use a box of white cake but instead of adding water to the mix, I add carbonated strawberry soda. It makes the batter a beautiful ballet-slipper pale pink and the cupcakes have a subtle (but impressive) strawberry taste. Frost them, garnish with fresh strawberries and — viola! — insanely easy strawberry cupcakes! — Katie D.

It’s made for babies, but I kind of want the Nook Pebble Mattress, spotted at Design Mom. There were concerns in comments about how easy it would be to clean after a “diaper explosion,” but apparently the cover is removable for cleaning. But ZOMG it’s $550! Is that something you’d invest in? — Mary T.