The backstory on beef The majority of cattle raised in Virginia are destined for an out-of-state feedlot where they will join the ranks of the numbered animals that are processed, shipped, and eaten around the country. As recent films and books have illustrated, commercially raised beef is one of the most troubling elements of our […]
The backstory on beef The majority of cattle raised in Virginia are destined for an out-of-state feedlot where they will join the ranks of the numbered animals that are processed, shipped, and eaten around the country. As recent films and books have illustrated, commercially raised beef is one of the most troubling elements of our […]
Get it together Problem: How to corral kids’ clutter into the common areas of a small home The 800-square-foot, two-bedroom city home that Kerry MacFarland shares with her husband, 3-year-old daughter and newborn baby boy is a study in multifunctional use of space and hidden storage. Kerry McFarland and her kids—Hannah, 3, and Sage, 6 […]
“There are people who have been here for 60 or 70 years,” says Chris Hays. “Here” is Woolen Mills, the eastern Charlottesville neighborhood he can see from the high-ceilinged living area of his house. This part of town grew up somewhat separate from the rest of Charlottesville, centered around the mill in its name. It […]
In real estate, timing is everything. And no time is that more true than when gearing up for the spring selling season, traditionally the most brisk time for moving homes during the year. But a big mistake a lot of buyers and sellers make is actually waiting until springtime to get serious about putting a […]
The trench in which we buried the two conduits. One of the silliest projects we ever took on was also a somewhat involuntary one. We needed to run four lengths of 3/4" tubing through a pair of underground conduits between our outdoor furnace and our basement. These would carry water back and forth to power […]
We don’t know about you, but here at Instant Decorator, we keep magazines lying around for months. (Being the crafting mavens we are, we just know that someday they’ll come in handy!) Luckily, this month’s craft puts them to good use. You can make this project exactly as we did, or come up with other […]
The workhorse tool in my house is the cordless power drill. That’s true even though most of the bits for boring holes, grinding and sanding are collecting dust in the garage as our serious D.I.Y. home improvement projects are behind us (for now anyway). Mostly we use the bits for easily driving and removing […]
Loes van Riel is an artist, and at her day job, she sells jewelry at the Downtown store Angelo. It’s somehow unsurprising, then, to find that in her studio at home, her current materials—seedpods, maple leaves, dried orchid flowers—are arranged and appreciated just like gems. The setting certainly enhances the effect. Van Riel and […]
New Year’s resolutions bug me: much too ambitious and made in haste. To ensure success this year, try these fun-to-keep wine-related resolutions. 1. Keep a wine journal. This summer, I was a guest at a dinner honoring a wine salesman and bon vivant who won his battle against cancer. We had several remarkable wines that […]
The love story between Wendy Browning and Randy Lynch is one of two ships passing in the night