Pottery Barn Market Umbrella

In this inspiring and fun Pottery Barn Kids video, we see an episode from Olive Us where we join the family of Ben and Gabrielle Blair. Gabrielle ...

Best Market Umbrellas 2010: High & Low | Apartment Therapy New York

Here's my umbrella guide for this season. This past weekend, it was REAL hot in the New York area, and we had our market umbrellas up the whole time. Over the years, I've bought better and better quality umbrellas that last a lot longer, but if we're not careful in the late summer and early fall, the strong winds will bust up even the best of them.

Stand and deliver -Thank you! It takes so much time to source products for our homes. Online searches often interrupted because of work and family priorities, life, etc.
This AT post goes directly into my Outdoor Living Toolkit. My job as a product manager for a landscape designer in SF has me constantly refining the research process for great product.
Today I am grinning from ear to ear, in the shade!

They're pricey, but the Westminster Teak umbrellas hold up very well...and big, you can cover an entire porch with their big one. The really cool part is that they are built to collapse if too much pressure is put on one of the arms, it has a rivet that shears so the pricey teak arm doesn't break. That alone is worth the money because I've gone through 3 cheap ones before I ponied up the dough for the 118 inch model. I could have bought theirs first and actually saved money now that I think about it. Ugh. http://www.westminsterteak.com/CID5/Umbrellas

Dorm room decorating 101

It may be small (and shared). But for at least one academic year, for thousands of college students, it's home.

Over generations, the dorm room hasn't gotten bigger. But the amount of must-have stuff -- including technology -- that needs to squeeze into that space has morphed into a much longer list.

"All our rooms now have Wi-Fi access and satellite TV packages," said Peggy Luers, coordinator for housing administration at California State University, Sacramento. "That was not an option when I was in school."

"Students need to be aware that the space they're moving into is probably smaller than they're used to -- and they're sharing," Luers said. "Don't bring everything all at once. You don't want a crowded room. You need a place to study."

Each college has its own variations of dorm do's and don'ts with some constants. No nails in the walls. No painting. No pets (except maybe fish).