Sarah Pinneo is a food writer and a mom. This month she branches out with the publication of her debut novel Julia's Child (Plume 2012). The book is a comedic story about a foodie mompreneur who starts her own organic toddler food company. Since the book--and real life--are full of challenging moments in the kitchen with kids, Sarah drops by to share a few tips she's learned along the way.

"I'd always seen myself as someone who welcomed her children into the kitchen... And yet here we were wrestling for the rolling pin." --Julia's Child, p. 117.

Inviting preschoolers into the kitchen can pay off, because kids who help with the cooking are more likely to try new foods. In an ideal world, during that witching hour between four and six pm, you'll have them contributing to the effort instead of clinging to your leg while you try to get dinner on the table.

Fast on the heels of the popular faceted, geometric, cut crystal trend in furniture design, origami-inspired shapes push the intricacy and beauty of angles to the next level. Origami, from ori meaning "folding", and kami meaning "paper", is the ancient Japanese art of paper folding in which a single sheet of paper is folded into complex designs without the use of cutting or gluing. Now designers are adopting this practice and turning thin metal sheets, cardboard, felt and even leather into practical and beautiful furnishings doubling as impressive works of art.

Room for Color 2011 is here! Room for Color is our annual search for beautiful, colorful interiors. We welcome rooms of all sizes and styles as entries - small or big, traditional or fashion forward, found in homes that have been years in the making or in first apartments. If you have a fantastic, color savvy room to share, this is your contest. Enter today!

If you caught our tour of the Marimekko factory, then you know what we're talking about. Oversized prints are making their way into all of the catalogs this year, and they're adding bold statements to rooms of every style.

From books to walls, store bought contact paper surely brings with it a bang for your buck. A cheaply purchased roll will cover 1/2 of an eight foot wall. Pull out your paints and create a custom design on the wallpaper. In an afternoon you can inexpensively cover any wall with whatever your heart can imagine!

Name: Shannon and Alicia
Location: San Francisco, California

Perched atop a sunny corner in San Francisco's busy Castro neighborhood overlooking both mountains and cityscapes, Shannon & Alicia's two-bedroom, deceptively Victorian flat is bright, spacious and, as their friends attest at every dinner party, a former dump.

Fashion ads are frequently criticized for promulgating an unrealistic beauty ideal, but somehow storage catalogs and sample closets get away scot-free despite being equally unattainable. We decided to see what some of the top style bloggers, people with even more extensive wardrobes than ours, are doing to solve the storage issue.

Name: Jen
Location: NOPA — San Francisco, California

When I first walked into Jen's two-bedroom flat, I couldn't help but feel instant calm. With minimal, modern whites blending into shades of earthy browns, her laid-back San Francisco apartment reflects her personality to a cap T. After years designing for Apple, Jen decided to launch her own outdoor boot-camp business. She says the streets, parks, and beaches of San Francisco are her "office," which might explain the nature-y vibe of her parkside home.

Name: Chad and Frank (and Hoffman, Beagle Mix)
Location: West Chelsea - Manhattan, NY

When two people take a leap in their relationship and move in together, especially into a small Manhattan apartment, often times the décor ultimately becomes a mish mash of styles or one nester compromises and takes a backseat in the decorating process. But for two opinionated physicians with divergent tastes, shacking up meant finding a happy middle ground that maintained one's modern glam shine while infusing comfort and durability for the other.