Culture and history are everywhere you look in Old Town Torrance: Four Hours

There's something for everyone in Torrance's historic downtown district, and the parking is free: Here's how to spend four hours there.

* This article was originally published here

A Winter Walk with Lila

                                                                     Hello everyone,                                                                                                                    It was a nice winter day here                                                              yesterday and I was fortunate to                                                              have my

* This article was originally published here

Garden Calendar: It's time for moonlight gardens and showy orchids

L.A. gardening events in February include sales of orchids (Westminster Mall), camellias and bonsai (both at the Huntington).

* This article was originally published here

THE ATLANTA MARKET

I don't know about where you live but my week went from Tuesday to Friday...skipping Wednesday and Thursday.  Or maybe I lived through it but it was a blurrr......Seriously! First things first....I finished 7 seasons of Offspring [on Netflix].  I was so attached to this family that I have been kind of sad.   I felt the same way when I finished 9 seasons of Mad Men.   Crikey...... I've got

* This article was originally published here

Mario Buatta’s treasures bring in $7.6 million as Sotheby’s auction soars past sales estimates

The 22-hour marathon was a major event for design lovers, who streamed the auction live and posted their wins on social media.

* This article was originally published here

Flowers to sow for a summer wedding | Alys Fowler

Pot marigolds are the kindest, easiest, most trustworthy of flowers that reflect the values of the woman I shall marry

This summer I’ve a wedding to grow flowers for: my own. And for someone who has known about this for some time, I have left it all rather late, but there you go. It’s not my first time doing this, so I know full well that you have to start a lot earlier than a couple of months before the big day.

With this in mind, I recently opened the Chiltern Seed catalogue and weighed up my options. Frothy ammi and sprinkles of dusky pink wild carrots are unlikely to be ready in time. The same could be said of cosmos, nicotiana, zinnia, oryla; the list goes on. Of course, it is possible to force many of these things, but that would require a greenhouse and a schedule to be around every weekend for watering.

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Botanical illustration is becoming endangered, but the job is essential

Alice Tangerini and her colleagues have devoted their lives to the task of discovering, and thus protecting, plant species and their ecologies that are the basis of life on Earth.

* This article was originally published here

Country diary: sunny 'choirboys' push their ruffs out of the leaf litter

Allendale, Northumberland: Winter aconites, out before even the snowdrops, pop up in unexpected places

Since early January, their sulphur yellow buds have been tightly closed, holding promise in their gently pointed, six-petalled domes. A song thrush has flicked through the leaf litter around them, casting wary backwards glances. A stoat has skipped along beneath the sycamore branches. Mornings have been frosty or damp or flecked with snow.

Now, in a blaze of unfolding, their petals (technically sepals) have opened to the sun and each flowerhead seems to have doubled in size. Winter aconites, out before even the snowdrops, they have pushed aside the decaying leaves of the woodland border to pop up in unexpected places, among lungworts, under hellebores, between box hedge and path, with exuberant freedom.

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* This article was originally published here

Tomato fans: How you can get free groundcherries and goldenberries for your garden

Tasty groundcherries and goldenberries deserve room in your garden. They're easy to grow in the garden or in pots, and prolific producers.

* This article was originally published here

The 7 things you have to spot in L.A. before you can really say you live here

On Netflix's "You," you can't say you're really from Los Angeles until you've seen the seven totems. It's a good start. But here's how to level up.

* This article was originally published here

Q&A: Emily Eerdmans on the Mario Buatta Auction, Collecting and Deacessioning

The Washington Post hosts a live chat on home and design every week.

* This article was originally published here

Top Excuses For Not Being Organized, Are You Guilty?

We all know becoming better organised remains a key to victory in terms of organising our personal life combined with our possessions. However common excuses offer a simple way of negating the effort required to create a sense of effective organisation. The top excuses encountered range from modified mental as well as emotional excuses. Combine the inability to visualise goals with a defeatist attitude, and you’ll start to recognise these excuses sound all too common. Learning the top excuses allows you to create a valuable proactive defence, ensuring you complete your organisation attempts every time.

Failure to see goals

Not seeing the organisational goals or how they will become accomplished leads to a lack of imagination that disallows organisation to occur. The mind fails to see positively the results of organising so a lazy complacency sets into the conscious mind. It’s important to see the end result.

The attitude “Somebody else remains better at organising than me”

This attitude exists as a referral system that takes responsibility and passes it onto somebody else. Referral remains a chief excuse for becoming redundant about organising. In essence it’s easier to make someone appear better in your own eyes, if it involves you doing less work.

Getting organised is hard work

Getting organised will only mean another mess later on once the organisational sparkle wears off. A natural entropic state gets created through the physical act of organisation. The mind creates many barriers yet the physical process remains extremely easy to complete. Keeping organised does require maintenance, to avoid the entropy creeping in a preferred direction of disorganisation.

To live in disorganised state reflects an inner creative spirit

This prime example of not becoming organised reflects a person’s ability to define their existence as artistic in nature. Living in a disorganised mess allows the excuse of creativity to interfere with efficiency or organisation. Challenging this misconception remains difficult as the core perception here involves changing a personal belief.

Emotional as well as mental states

Stating illness, depression, anxiety, and vocal frustrations connected with wasted money may seem to offer ideal top excuses for not becoming organised. However these emotional mental states effectively creating mind barriers to the start of the organising process. Organisation requires effort. Break the mind barriers to start reorganisation simply through the act of starting. The thoughts drag out the negativity into physical complacency.

Once you recognise the top excuses for remaining inactive, whether in yourself or other people, you can begin to negate the justification for doing nothing. Becoming better organised results in a more efficient lifestyle. Creating a streamlined mode of living helps achieve a greater positive experience. Superior organisation equals supplementary time for social, as well as leisure events. Less time’s wasted in your daily life searching for lost items. Every place has a unique easily identifiable home, providing you avoid the top excuses for not organising yourself, as well as listening to those around you.

* This article was originally published here

* This article was originally published here

Top Excuses For Not Being Organized, Are You Guilty?

We all know becoming better organised remains a key to victory in terms of organising our personal life combined with our possessions. However common excuses offer a simple way of negating the effort required to create a sense of effective organisation. The top excuses encountered range from modified mental as well as emotional excuses. Combine the inability to visualise goals with a defeatist attitude, and you’ll start to recognise these excuses sound all too common. Learning the top excuses allows you to create a valuable proactive defence, ensuring you complete your organisation attempts every time.

Failure to see goals

Not seeing the organisational goals or how they will become accomplished leads to a lack of imagination that disallows organisation to occur. The mind fails to see positively the results of organising so a lazy complacency sets into the conscious mind. It’s important to see the end result.

The attitude “Somebody else remains better at organising than me”

This attitude exists as a referral system that takes responsibility and passes it onto somebody else. Referral remains a chief excuse for becoming redundant about organising. In essence it’s easier to make someone appear better in your own eyes, if it involves you doing less work.

Getting organised is hard work

Getting organised will only mean another mess later on once the organisational sparkle wears off. A natural entropic state gets created through the physical act of organisation. The mind creates many barriers yet the physical process remains extremely easy to complete. Keeping organised does require maintenance, to avoid the entropy creeping in a preferred direction of disorganisation.

To live in disorganised state reflects an inner creative spirit

This prime example of not becoming organised reflects a person’s ability to define their existence as artistic in nature. Living in a disorganised mess allows the excuse of creativity to interfere with efficiency or organisation. Challenging this misconception remains difficult as the core perception here involves changing a personal belief.

Emotional as well as mental states

Stating illness, depression, anxiety, and vocal frustrations connected with wasted money may seem to offer ideal top excuses for not becoming organised. However these emotional mental states effectively creating mind barriers to the start of the organising process. Organisation requires effort. Break the mind barriers to start reorganisation simply through the act of starting. The thoughts drag out the negativity into physical complacency.

Once you recognise the top excuses for remaining inactive, whether in yourself or other people, you can begin to negate the justification for doing nothing. Becoming better organised results in a more efficient lifestyle. Creating a streamlined mode of living helps achieve a greater positive experience. Superior organisation equals supplementary time for social, as well as leisure events. Less time’s wasted in your daily life searching for lost items. Every place has a unique easily identifiable home, providing you avoid the top excuses for not organising yourself, as well as listening to those around you.

* This article was originally published here

The washers and dryers that will make you love laundry day

Experts recommend their favorites, for large families and small.

* This article was originally published here

Palm Springs Modernism Week announces schedule for 2020. Tickets go on sale Friday

Modernism Week returns in 2020 with more than 350 events including midcentury modern home tours, lectures, bus tours, parties and neighborhood tours.

* This article was originally published here

The ‘downsizing’ trend is an insult to young and poor renters

Moving somewhere smaller and more design-efficient is sold as a lifestyle choice. Try telling that to those trapped in shoebox-sized accommodation

Sheri Koones, author of Downsize: Living Large in a Small House, recently suggested renaming the downsizing trend “right-sizing”. Koones draws on her experience of relocating from a 6,800 sq ft house to a 1,400 sq ft one, and suggests that “the key is to have a home that is efficiently designed, both in terms of energy use and space”.

Of all the annoying lifestyle trends, downsizing is the biggest smack in the face for anyone in the private-renting trap. Shoebox-sized, sub-par rental accommodation is the norm in London, while nationwide studies show that homes are getting smaller. Younger adults who have managed to get on the housing ladder know all about the shortage of affordable, spacious accommodation.

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* This article was originally published here

How to make sense of a large, asymmetrical family room

Instead of several small seating areas, go big with one grouping anchored by a cozy sectional.

* This article was originally published here

* This article was originally published here

How to make sense of a large, asymmetrical family room

Instead of several small seating areas, go big with one grouping anchored by a cozy sectional.

* This article was originally published here

Grow your likes: the unstoppable rise of the Insta plant

They’re green, photogenic and social media stars

Instagram may well have changed the way you garden, even if you don’t have an account. From the plants you buy – and where you buy them – to the gardens you visit, the platform has driven a profound change in the tastes and habits of even established gardeners, not to mention encouraging a new generation of green fingers.

Plants have been inspiring artists for hundreds of years, so they are well suited to the photo app. A younger generation (urban, cash-strapped, Insta-obsessed and renting) are driving houseplant sales, sharing pictures of their plant babies instead of the human ones they can’t afford. From the dramatic structure of mother-in-law’s tongue to blousy tea roses, you can say a lot about your taste through the species you share. Connecting with nature reduces stress, much needed in these chaotic times; even bursts of online greenery, amid Instagram’s sometimes frantic commercialism, are a tonic.

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* This article was originally published here

Botanic garden light shows and some serious classes for improving your garden soil.

Gardening datebook: Wonder what's happening in SoCal's gardening scene? Stroll through holiday light shows at SoCal botanic gardens, ask an entomologist to unmask your mystery garden pests and get some serious lessons in improving your garden soil.

* This article was originally published here

How To Make An Easy Rag Wreath

When we came across this DIY rag Wreath tutorial by Cottageatthecrossroads  We knew we had to feature it. This rag wreath has a romantic shabby chic feel to it, but of course you are only limited by the fabric color combinations you choose for your easy rag wreath. This tutorial shows you how to make a wreath using rags or scrap fabric or strips of fabric to create a wreath that is full and shabby. This tutorial has photos to guide you along which is one of the reasons I wanted to share it with you.

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Now anyone can admire Frank Lloyd Wright's original Hollyhock House drawings

Now you can explore Hollyhock House, Frank Lloyd Wright's first L.A. project, from the comfort of your laptop.

* This article was originally published here

Kitsch confidential in New York

A Greenwich Village designer’s passion for rebooting reclaimed treasures brings her prewar duplex apartment bang up to date

Behind the classic facade of US-born designer Sasha Bikoff’s prewar Greenwich Village duplex lies a tale of 18th-century France and glam disco-era bravado. Or, to put it another way, Marie Antoinette meets Studio 54 and 1980s Palm Beach.

“I’m inspired by the eccentricity of different eras,” says Bikoff. “So when I discovered the original 80s powder room in this place, it sealed the deal. It was just so far out that I had to live here.”

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* This article was originally published here

Aah, a hot bath – archive, 28 January 1936

28 January 1936 The immense satisfaction a good soak brings

Just a spot more hot from that supply which you have so lovingly conserved for this moment of scarcely perceptible diminution in that superb, that liquid, melting warmth that buoyantly enfolds you. To this haven you have attained through a barrier of scalding heat, through a frantic period of toe-dipping and flicking, with just enough self-command remaining not to ruin all by too easy a recourse to “the cold”; through a phase of immersion by instalment, when your legs assumed a lobster hue and you clenched your teeth upon the cry of parboiled agony. But it was worth it. You have achieved perfection. You reach out a languid hand to the hot tap and sink back into the depths lulled, comforted, secure, as the new water wells round you.

Related: The hot bath habit: from the archive, 7 October 1925

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* This article was originally published here

* This article was originally published here

Aah, a hot bath – archive, 28 January 1936

28 January 1936 The immense satisfaction a good soak brings

Just a spot more hot from that supply which you have so lovingly conserved for this moment of scarcely perceptible diminution in that superb, that liquid, melting warmth that buoyantly enfolds you. To this haven you have attained through a barrier of scalding heat, through a frantic period of toe-dipping and flicking, with just enough self-command remaining not to ruin all by too easy a recourse to “the cold”; through a phase of immersion by instalment, when your legs assumed a lobster hue and you clenched your teeth upon the cry of parboiled agony. But it was worth it. You have achieved perfection. You reach out a languid hand to the hot tap and sink back into the depths lulled, comforted, secure, as the new water wells round you.

Related: The hot bath habit: from the archive, 7 October 1925

Continue reading...

* This article was originally published here

Four Hours: Let Little Tokyo surprise you

Little Tokyo is a place of unexpected juxtapositions, which makes for the exciting afternoon you didn't even know you needed.

* This article was originally published here

* This article was originally published here

Do you know what’s happening to your clothing donations?

Manufacturers and consumers are beginning to focus on textile recycling.

* This article was originally published here

* This article was originally published here