1) Fall is your favorite. Asking in the height of the season may make us biased, but fall has a lot of fans. Chelsea says: “I didn’t used to be a fall girl, but I gotta say — I’m getting on the autumn train these days! I love it when the boots can come out and play, and you can toss a scarf on and be just the right temperature. And let us not forget: the pumpkin spice latte makes its long-awaited return!” Which season is your favorite?

2) Steampunk literature is a genre worth exploring. When Louise mentioned she’s reading only steampunk for the month of October, many of you wanted to know more. Megan says: “Steampunk is a genre of art, literature, and film that encompasses an alternate reality, typically set in a Victorian-esque era, where there is technology similar to what we have today, but it is all highly mechanized (so instead of airplanes, dirigibles, and instead of digital night-goggles, they’ll have sprockets and gears, etc…). For a good example of steampunk in movies, watch “The City of Lost Children.” To get an idea of a Steampunk aesthetic, go here.” Interested? What are you reading?

3) Pin-tuck bedding isn’t a problem for many of you. Sarah C. explained her duvet dilemma and you responded with mostly positive reviews of pin-tuck bedding sets. Stephanie says: “I have the West Elm pintuck in cream, from about 2 1/2 years ago. I do hear a rip occasionally if we tug the duvet too hard, but I don’t actually see any damage ever. I wash mine every few weeks (because we have a big labradoodle who has free reign of our bed) and it’s held up great. The only downside if you’re picky about wrinkles is it’s hard to iron. But that wouldn’t be enough reason for me to change to a different one – I love it.” The rule seems to be to keep the stitching in mind when tucking the end in to a footboard or a wall. Noted!

Treehugger introduces Bus Roots: a groovy green roof system for public busses to increase the green space in New York.

Unclutterrer throws down some helpful hints for creating a mail center in your home.

Over at the New York Times, there’s an enlightening (and sad) article with a possible explanation of the colony collapse disorder affecting the world’s bee population. It’s not cell phone towers…

We get a detailed look into the iconic drawers of French designer Charlotte Perriand over at Dinosaurs and Robots. And yes, we’re talking drawers for storage, not underpants.

Wanna win $250? Like to cook? Well, enter the Readymade recipe contest for their new community cookbook, and you’ll get a chance to win some extra holiday spending money!

More milk carton costume fun : how to make a stormtrooper helmet from a milk jug, at Make.

Everything Jonathan Adler touches turns to gold! See his Midas touch applied to “happy chic” folding screens, at CasaSugar.

I love the idea of painted columns at the corner of a dining room. The technique is something that I’ve never seen before and manages to be both whimsical and stately at the same time. According to the how-to guide from Martha Stewart (who else?), all you’ll need is paint, card stock to make the stencil, and a steady hand. What do you think, dear readers? Are stenciled wall columns a DIY definitely worth trying or a potential decorating disaster? –Katie D.

The Brick House was an accidental discovery for me: I stumbled across an Apartment Therapy house tour of Morgan Satterfield’s Hemet, California home and was inspired and delighted. Hemet, you see, is where I spent a great deal of my time growing up, as my grandmother lives there. I’ve always viewed it as a hot, mobile home-laden wasteland — not the young, vital, and cool desert vibe that the Brick House portrays. “The House” is packed full of wittily-written DIY tutorials for fabulous, doable projects, like this Ace Hotel-inspired pipe shelving unit and this brass chandelier. Morgan’s motto is to never spend more than $100 on anything, which is hard to believe considering the quality of furnishings and decor in her home. I, for one, have been inspired by so many things on the site I’m considering hiring Morgan to consult on some of my own home projects, a service we can all utilize thanks to her new venture Brick House Design. –Megan B.

Fall is supposed to be the bittersweet season. I get that. But for me, it’s the sweetest season of all. I met my husband in the fall. My daughters, as fate would have it, are fall babies. Then there are the warm days and cool nights, fall festivals, caramel apples, candy-colored leaves, college football and my favorite holiday of all — Halloween. I could go on, but I’ll spare you more unabashed gushing over all things fall. So now that we know where I stand — feet firmly planted under a maple tree — let’s hear from you. Which season is your favorite? Why? — Sarah L.

The last thing I need is another wooden cutting board. Despite this, the cheeky design and versatility of the Puzzleboard by OOOMS Dutch Design Studio has earned it a place of distinction in my kitchen among its rectangular peers. Ideal for chopping and displaying treats, the board also features an open end perfect for cradling a glass of wine while entertaining. Stick with one or indulge the design by snagging a few for $26 each at Supermarket. – Sarah C.

via Freshhome

My husband and I have a serious art collecting problem. It started small, with a Gary Baseman print and some vinyl toys, and grew much larger, into custom commissions and original works by some pretty well known artists. It’s one of the things we’ve had to let slide, sadly, with the purchase of our home and my husband’s expensive masters program — but oh, how I miss having the disposable income to throw down for a painting I *NEED* on my walls. One artist we are currently coveting is Nouar, a Los Angeles-based painter who has recently caught our attention. Her work is everything we like: whimsical, food-themed and humorous, filled with vintage-inspired eye candy. Check out her flickr page for more adorable paintings, or if you’re in the Los Angeles area, check out her new show, “Consumed by You” opening Oct.16 at Copro Gallery in Santa Monica. Wish we could be there for the opening, but our savings account is glad we won’t be! –Megan B.

Fresh fig season may still be happening where you live, but it’s just about over up here, sadly. I chose to make the most of this season’s bounty by preserving it: both in a sweet honey and fig jam and a savory fig and kalamata olive tapenade. Both are *incredibly* simple and versatile — serve the fig jam on top of oatmeal for breakfast, or slather it on flatbreads topped with crumbled gorgonzola for a quick appetizer. The tapenade loves creamy goat cheese, crudites, and long walks on the beach. I like to serve them both on a holiday cheese plate to give some interesting contrast to just about any fromage you can find. Can’t find fresh figs anymore? Well, fear not: either recipe works great year-round with dried figs (use black mission for a dark, rich color) and would make a quick and fabulous addition to your holiday recipe arsenal! –Megan B. Click for figs, two ways! (more…)

After a one massive heat wave of a summer here on the East Coast, there’s finally a nip in the air and I for one am diving into our sudden autumn with wild abandon. One of my favorite fall past times? Burying my nose in a good read. I’m in a book club, and we’ve just finished Stieg Larsson’s The Girl Who Played With Fire, the second book in his page-turning trilogy, and we’re breaking before the third to read Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, which has been adapted for the big screen. How about you readers? What is on your book list for fall? – Sarah C.

image via Bookshelf Porn

Sure, drinking regular old beer out of cans or bottles is great for every other holiday, but for Halloween I really like to kick it up with some fun and macabre drinks. Blood orange screwdrivers garnished with eyeball fruit skewers (canned, pitted lychees stuffed with blueberries, skewered and frozen) would look fantastically gross in these haunt highballs. For the kids, you can mix up a batch of this black punch recipe in a mad-scientist approved Catamount flameproof measuring beaker. Serve shots of Redrum in shot glasses frozen in these Halloween ice molds from Wilton. If all this isn’t inspiration enough, look to Megan at Not Martha, who had a great post about her Halloween cocktail experiments, working with black vodka and a bunch of fun ice cubes. And of course, the goddess herself, Martha Stewart has a fabulous Halloween cocktail roundup here. –Megan B.