We recently had our first 50 degree day in Chicago so I was happy to dust off my old bike and go out for my inaugural spin of the season. Now that it's warming up and I'm more likely to rely on pedal power get get around, it's time to look around for some new biking gear. 

I've been seeing a lot of reclaimed wood pieces at local galleries and home design stores. I love how these works celebrate the raw beauty of wood scraps while offering unique interpretations of the medium. 

Just because we're done with Easter doesn't mean we're done with eggs — how about a little love for our feathery friends?

Family gardens are evolving spaces, particularly during the early childhood years. In infancy and early toddlerhood, a garden is purely sensory experience. As kids get older, their family garden becomes a site for work, relaxation, and learning. Here are some ideas to get kids engaged and excited about gardening, whether your family is working with a ledge, containers, or a yard.

With warm weather on its way comes the opportunity to dine al fresco, one of the great pleasures of the season. Eating in the open air also means flies making a dive for your meal and just generally getting in the way. Here is a safe and easy way to repel these pests without using harmful sprays. More

We've all got the bottle/can/paper recycling down-pat, but what about fabrics? What do you do with the sheets that got so wonderfully soft that they finally shredded? Or the beloved t-shirt that was demoted to house-cleaning garb and then again to rag status? Or the legs of your jeans when you chop your annual cut-offs? Fortunately, all of that fabric is still very much in demand.

Is your refrigerator running? Away with your utility bills, that is. Whether you've got an old fridge in your kitchen or have retired it to the garage, you might be wasting away a ton of money on your energy bill.

The government's Energy Star website has a nifty refrigerator retirement savings calculator that will help you calculate how much money you'd save by replacing your main refrigerator or freezer or removing your old one from the garage entirely.

My husband and I have been working on overhauling our small city backyard since last summer. The biggest chunk of the work has happened already, and I've been imagining all the finishing touches. Besides thinking a lot about plants, my mind has gone to the birds.